Dragan Stojkovic Piksi and captain Dusan Tadic held a press conference before the match of the 1st round of Group G of the World Cup in Qatar.
All domestic, regional, and public attention is focused on the big clash between the Europeans and the original Brazilians, and the further course of this championship for both will depend on the outcome.
Journalists were most interested in the lineup that Piksi chose:
“These are completely legitimate and normal questions, but no coach in the world will tell you in which team he will play, we know 99% of Brazil’s team. As for our team, we worked well, we adapted well to life in Qatar, and the situation is satisfactory, only Kostic is questionable for the next game. There, I revealed something to you”. – Piksi added
The Brazilian media were interested in what kind of Serbia they could expect in the match.
“I expect a brave Serbia, a good Serbia and I hope that we will achieve a good result. You said that Brazil will play with four strikers? You are very lucky when you can play with four strikers. And the defense? Someone has to play and defend. Brazil is in its golden age. Brazil has a chance to win, but so does Serbia. We are not afraid of anyone in the world, not even Brazil. Sorry, but that’s how it is”.
The journalists were interested in what Piksi expects from Brazil, to attack with three or four.
“We never play individual marking, Brazil has a large number of quality players, Neymar, Vinicius, Richarlison… They are all top strikers. It’s difficult for everyone to defend against such players, but we have to be concentrated all the time, to try to stop them in the right way, intelligently, not to go into a race for marking, that’s not my style of football. It will be very difficult, but it is possible to stop them”.
The match starts at 8:00 p.m., while in the same group at 11:00 a.m. Switzerland meets Cameroon.
You can see and listen to the history of matches between Serbia / Yugoslavia and Brazil in our podcast, DEVETKA.
