Three Eagles Skip Mexico Trip as Serbia Weakened Further
After the loss to Cape Verde, coach Paunovic confirmed Pavlovic, Zivkovic and Milosevic will miss the friendly in Toluca.
- Strahinja Pavlovic, Andrija Zivkovic and Jovan Milosevic will not travel to Mexico.
- Pavlovic only played the Cape Verde game by prior agreement due to fatigue.
- Zivkovic and Milosevic took knocks in Lisbon, so the staff will not risk them.
- Serbia were already without Milinkovic-Savic, Vlahovic and Mitrovic.
The plane to Mexico left Lisbon with a thinner cabin than anyone had planned. As teammates packed their bags after a rough night on Portuguese soil, three names stayed behind, and a squad that was already short grew thinner still.
Coach Veljko Paunovic confirmed to Sputnik Serbia on June 1 that Strahinja Pavlovic, Andrija Zivkovic and Jovan Milosevic will not travel for the second match of the June camp. The side that lost 0-3 to Cape Verde in Lisbon now heads to Toluca with an even shorter rotation.
Who stays and who flies to Mexico?
The reasons for the three absences are not the same. Pavlovic was agreed in advance, while Zivkovic and Milosevic dropped out because of injuries picked up in Lisbon.
- Strahinja Pavlovic (Milan), by an agreement made before the trip to Portugal, played only against Cape Verde
- Andrija Zivkovic (PAOK), took an awkward knock in Lisbon
- Jovan Milosevic, also took a knock, so the staff will not risk him
“With Strahinja, even before the trip to Portugal, we made an agreement that, because of his heavy fatigue and the extremely demanding season behind him, he would play only the match against Cape Verde,” coach Veljko Paunovic said.
The logic is clear to anyone who follows the club calendar. Pavlovic has come off a draining cycle at Milan, and a friendly on another continent does not carry the weight to justify added risk. Zivkovic and Milosevic are a different story, both took their knocks on the pitch, so the call is purely medical.
How weakened is Serbia really?
This is not the start of the problem but its continuation. The national team had already arrived at the June camp without several key names.
The June call-up list did not include the Milinkovic-Savic brothers, Dusan Vlahovic or Aleksandar Mitrovic. Add to that the now-confirmed absence of Pavlovic in defence, Zivkovic on the wing and Milosevic up front, and it is clear that the team taking the field in Toluca will look very different from what is usually considered the first eleven.
The match against Mexico is scheduled for June 5 at the Estadio Nemesio Diez in Toluca, a venue that holds about 30,000 spectators. The hosts will of course field a full squad in front of their own crowd, while Paunovic will hand minutes to players who have so far been in the background. After a 0-3 defeat, every minute on the pitch in Mexico also carries a message to the coach about who deserves a place in the rest of the cycle.
Do you think a weakened side in Toluca can salvage some pride after Lisbon, or is the June camp already a write-off?
