The Republic of Ireland take on Serbia in their final 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifier of the September international window on Tuesday evening.
Ireland head into the second half of the qualifiers without a win in their first four games while Serbia sit top of Group A on 10 points, ahead of Portugal on goal difference.
Stephen Kenny’s side have had a frustrating first international break of the season so far, losing away to Portugal in the dying moments of the game and failing to earn three points against a rigid Azerbaijan in Dublin.
Serbia, on the other hand, have scored four goals in both of their games in the international break, including a 4-0 win in a friendly against Qatar in Hungary.
Dragan Stojkovic’s side dispatched of Luxembourg at the Red Star stadium at the same time Ireland salvaged a draw with 112th in the world Azerbaijan.
Luxembourg had previously beaten Ireland by a goal in an empty Aviva Stadium at the end of March where the away side always looked better.
Aleksandar Mitrovic scored a second brace of the World Cup Qualifiers so far to take his tally to six in the campaign.
His first brace came against Ireland in the teams’ reverse fixture – a 3-2 Serbian home win.
Ireland have produced two of their best performances against the two sides heavily favoured to progress from Group A – Serbia and Portugal – and Stephen Kenny will be hopeful of more of the same on Tuesday night.
Captain Seamus Coleman will be unavailable for the Republic of Ireland through injury after playing all 90 minutes against both Portugal and Azerbaijan while Southampton forward Shane Long is still sidelined with coronavirus.
Cyrus Christie will join the squad for the Serbia game in Coleman’s place.
Lineups
Republic of Ireland (3-5-2): Bazunu; Omobamidele, Egan, Duffy (C); Doherty, Hendrick, Cullen, Browne, McClean; Idah, McGrath.
Subs: Kelleher, Talbot, Manning, Hourihane, Parrott, Robinson, Christie, Horgan, Molumby, Collins, Arter, Scales.
Serbia (3-4-3): Rajkovic; Pavlovic, Veljkovic, Milenkovic; Gudelj, Milinkovic-Savic, Kostic, Djuricic; Tadic, Vlahovic, Mitrovic
Subs: Dmitrovic, Mladenovic, Ilic, Maksimovic, Radonjic, Jovic, Mitrovic, Racic, Lukic, Ristic, Svilar.
Odds
Republic of Ireland 12/5
Draw 23/10
Serbia 11/10
Where To Watch
The match between the Republic of Ireland and Serbia will be held at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin and will kick-off at 7:45 pm. The game will be shown on RTÉ 2 and Sky Sports Football – coverage on both channels begins at 7 pm.
