Serbia v Switzerland: High stakes and high tension

Serbia went 3-1 up when Aleksandar Mitrovic scored his first goal of the tournament early in the second period and looked to be cruising.

But the Africans responded in spectacular fashion as substitute Vincent Aboubakar and Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting both scored in the space of three minutes to haul their side level.

Head coach Dragan Stojkovic said: “Of course, players should not lose their heads. We are frustrated as we wanted the win and had the match in our hands, but our silly mistakes allowed Cameroon to avoid defeat.

“We made two huge mistakes in the defence. At this level it is very dangerous to go high up when your opponent has the ball. These two mistakes cost us victory. It is difficult to understand and completely unnecessary.”

That performance may persuade Serbia to adopt a cautious approach in the early stages and in Coral’s #YourCall markets, we like 11/8 for Switzerland to win or draw, Serbia not to score in the first half and under 3.5 total goals.

Rivals meet again

Serbia and Switzerland are meeting for the second successive World Cup and their clash four years ago in Russia makes this a tasty contest.

Switzerland’s goals in a 2-1 win were scored by ethnic Albanians Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri and their ‘double eagle’ celebrations did not go down well in Serbia.

The gesture represents the eagle on Albania’s flag and increased political tension in the region while both players were jeered by Serbia fans throughout the game.

Xhaka and Shaqiri are likely to start once again and are 5/1 and 3/1 respectively to score at any time in the Serbia v Switzerland odds, while Xhaka can be backed at 11/5 to have at least one shot on target.

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All odds and markets are correct as of the date of publication