Albania will host Serbia on Saturday in the next round of the World Cup qualifiers, in what is a high-risk match between two neighbouring nations in the Balkans.
The Serbians certainly still remember the infamous game against Albania from more than a decade ago and the incident that occurred in Belgrade when a drone carrying an Albanian nationalist banner landed in the middle of the pitch at Marakana Stadium. This sparked a fierce response from the crowd and the match had to be abandoned, with Albania ultimately taking the win at the green table.
So, this will be a tense match, but we hope that we'll get to see good football too. Albania enter this match in poor form, having been relegated from League B to League C of the UEFA Nations League. However, they did win their previous match in the WC qualifiers against Andorra after previously losing to England.
On the other hand, Serbia managed to avoid relegation from League A of the UEFA Nations League by beating Austria in the playoffs, 3-1 on aggregate. Those matches were played in the previous international window, so Serbia will only now play their first game in these WC qualifiers.
How the bookies view it: Bookies backing up Serbia
At Boylesports, the odds on Serbia to win are 11/10, so the guests are favoured to take three points against their fierce rivals. Meanwhile, the odds on Albania to win are 5/2, while a draw is priced at 2/1, all at Boylesports.
Recent head-to-head: Only two previous meetings
We already mentioned that abandoned match from 2014, which was the first of the two games between Albania and Serbia in the EURO 2016 qualifiers. The second match was played in Albania and it was finished, but not the way the hosts wanted since Serbia won 2-0.
Players to watch: Aleksandar Mitrovic in focus
After missing both of Serbia's games against Austria in the UEFA Nations League, as well as a big chunk of the season overall, Mitrovic is back in the fold again. While the team's manager Dragan Stojkovic has to decide whether to go with Mitrovic or Vlahovic, or both, which often happens, it's certain that Mitrovic will get a chance to play, at least from the bench.
The former Fulham forward is two games separated from reaching 100 games for Serbia, but he's already the team's best-ever scorer with 59 goals in the national team. So, backing Mitrovic to score when he's donning the Serbian jersey is always a smart move and the odds on him scoring at any time are a tempting 13/8 at Boylesport.
Predicted line-ups
Both teams enter this game nearly with a clean bill of health. That being said, Serbia will miss their goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic, while Albania don't have missing players to worry about ahead of this game.
Albania: Strakosha, Hysaj, Djimsiti, Ajeti, Mitaj, Asllani, Bajrami, Uzuni, Laci, Hoxha, Manaj
Serbia: Petrovic, Milenkovic, Pavlovic, Erakovic, Zivkovic, Gudelj, Maksimovic, S. Mitrovic, Samardzic, Vlahovic, Mitrovic
Anything else catch the eye?
While the first part of Stojkovic's tenure as Serbia's head coach saw many high-scoring matches, it has been quite the opposite recently, with Serbia going under 2.5 total goals in 10 of their last 11 games. Considering the next match will be a high-pressure one for both teams, a low-scoring game sounds quite plausible, though the odds aren't too great – just 11/20 at Boylesports.
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