BOTH Austria and Serbia begin their preparations for Euro 2024 with an international friendly fixture at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion on Tuesday night.
Three years on from being knocked out of Euro 2020 by eventual-winners Italy, Ralf Rangnick is now at the wheel for the Austrian national team.
The 65-year-old steered Das Team to this summer’s spectacle with room to spare, finishing second in Group F, nine points in front of third-placed Sweden.
In fact, Austria have lost just one of their last 14 matches, so they will be keen to keep up that momentum when Serbia visit Vienna this midweek.
Despite participating in four of the last five World Cups, Euro 2024 will be the first time Serbia have appeared at a European Championship as an independent nation.
The Eagles have a squad stacked with household names and they will no doubt be many punters pick to outperform expectations in Germany.
How the bookies view it: Austria to assert authority
Austria are 11/10 favourites on Bet 365 to win the first of their final two friendly matches before Euro 2024.
Serbia are 12/5 outsiders on Bet 365, while an all-square affair at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion has been priced up at 9/4 with the same firm.
Head to head: History against the hosts
Since first crossing paths in 2009, Serbia have taken top honours from three of the four meetings between the two nations
However, it's worth noting that Austria did emerge victorious from the most recent of those match-ups, which was back in 2017.
Players to watch: Gregortisch thirsty for more goals
After netting a hat-trick in Austria's 6-1 friendly win against Turkey in March, Micahel Gregoritsch is 21/10 on Bet 365 to score anytime against Serbia. If you fancy the Freiburg striker to hit another trio of strikes on Tuesday night, then another hat-trick can be backed at a whopping 80/1 0n Bet 365.
With a very respectable 22 goals in 106 caps for his country, Serbia’s Dusan Tadic looks worthy of interest to register a shot on target at 5/6 on Bet 365.
Predicted line-ups
Austria will almost certainly be without Marcel Sabitzer for this friendly following his involvement in this season’s Champions League final.
Serbia look set to have a fully fit squad to choose from ahead of their penultimate fixture before Euro 2024.
Austria: Pentz; Lainer, Querfeld, Danso, Mwene; Seiwald, Grillitsch, Laimer, Baumgartner, Weimann; Gregoritsch
Serbia: Petrovic; Masovic, Erakovic, Pavlovic, Mladenovic; Tadic, S Milinkovic-Savic, Lukic; Zivkovic, Mitrovic, Gacinovic
Anything else catch the eye?
With both sides able to approach this game in a relatively relaxed mood, backing both teams to score at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion merits consideration at 4/5 on Bet 365.
As already alluded to, Austria racked up six strikes when tearing Turkey apart 6-1 in March, not to mention they have made the net ripple in each of their last 15 international assignments.
As for Serbia, they also carry plenty of attacking threat of their own, as evidenced by the fact that they have scored in 13 of their last 15 fixtures across all competitions.
With that in mind, backing each team to oblige in Vienna seems like a sensible solution at 4/5 on with Bet 365
This International Friendly match between Austria and Serbia will be played on Jun 4, 2024 and kick off at 19:45. Check below for our tipsters best Austria vs Serbia prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
