Rio Ferdinand has picked out the three ‘main players’ England should be wary of against Serbia but doubts they will pose ‘much of a problem’ in the Euro 2024 Group C contest.
England – one of the hot favourites this summer – kick off their group-stage campaign in Gelsenkirchen as they set out on their quest to bring home a first major trophy in 58 years.
There have been doubts over the fitness of John Stones, Bukayo Saka and Luke Shaw in recent days but Gareth Southgate has a fully fit squad at his disposal and the Three Lions will be keen to make a statement with their opening performance.
Tournament hosts Germany kick-started their campaign with an emphatic 5-1 victory in Friday’s curtain-raiser and Spain put Croatia to the sword before Italy – the reigning champions – came from behind to beat Albania yesterday.
Previewing tonight’s clash on the FIVE YouTube channel, former Manchester United defender Ferdinand confidently backed Southgate’s men to follow suit and come away from Arena AufSchalke with victory.
However, the legendary ex-England international – capped 81 times between 1997 and 2011 – believes Serbia have three star players in their ranks capable of hurting the Three Lions.
‘I don’t think they’re going to be much of a problem. [Aleksandar] Mitrovic and [Dusan] Vlahovic up front, [Dusan] Tadic behind, they’re the three main players but I don’t think will start both Vlahovic and Mitrovic,’ Ferdinand said.
‘Mitrovic is in Saudi [Arabia] and has scored loads of goals, I think they won the league as well.
‘He is a threat but my team talk would be: “We keep these lot out of our box and as long as we keep them out of our box we win!”
‘Mitrovic is their main threat, Tadic can do a bit as well, don’t get me wrong.
‘But just keep them high… Mitrovic or Vlahovic ain’t running in behind and nor is Tadic. You ain’t got to worry about that. Squeeze the game and suffocate them.’
Ferdinand urged England to ‘respect’ the opposition but believes Dragan Stojkovic’s squad lacks the quality of years gone by when the likes of Nemanja Vidic, Nemanja Matic and Branislav Ivanovic were at the peak of their powers.
‘They understand going into battle. It’s pressure and they’ve got to deal with it, but I love Vidic,’ he added.
‘He’s a top man and obviously you meet people and you learn a bit about their culture which is nice.
‘You’ve got to respect Serbia but I just don’t think they’ve got some of the players they maybe once had before.
‘Matic is not involved now, Vidic isn’t involved, Ivanovic, people like that. They’ve had some great players over the years.
‘They’ve got good players now but I don’t think they’re going to be a strong enough team to play against England at the moment.’
Looking ahead to the latter stages of the tournament, Ferdinand predicted that England would come out as the eventual winners and get their hands on a first major trophy since Sir Alf Ramsey’s team of 1966.
Ferdinand also backed Germany’s Jamal Musiala to scoop the Player of the Tournament prize, Spain’s Lamine Yamal to be named the Young Player of the Tournament and France’s Kylian Mbappe to finish as top scorer.
On Yamal, Ferdinand joked: ‘Just think, 16 years old, just posted his GCSEs… hasn’t got his letter back yet! Has not got his results from his GCSEs yet! It’s unbelievable.
‘And he’s now posted up at a Euros, gonna go and damage it up! Unbelievable.’
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