England vs Serbia – Prediction: Can Serbia cause an upset?

On Thursday 13th November England will take on Serbia in this Group K World Cup qualifying match. England thrashed Serbia 5-0 in their first fixture back in September, despite some dirty laser action from the Serbian fans aimed at Ezri Konsa, who answered them by scoring England’s third goal of the match. The English have earned qualification with another 5-goal victory away in Latvia. They will still want to continue their strong form when they meet Serbia for a second time at Wembley, with many players wanting to stake their place in the World Cup squad. While England have proven themselves to have a clutch of excellent goalscorers, Serbia will need to up their attacking game as well as their defence if they want to keep their World Cup dream alive with only the playoff spot left available in this group. Read on for our England vs Serbia prediction.

As England are at home and have an unbroken winning record thus far in this group, they are the natural favourites to win this match. With Serbia currently in third place in the group standings, however, they must realistically claim a win to have any chance of taking Albania’s place in the play-offs and progress in the competition. Coming into this match, England have been playing a strong game as they have only lost one game – a friendly – since the appointment of senior head coach Thomas Tuchel in October 2024. Serbia’s recent playing history has been more mixed, as they do not share the goalscoring power that England possesses. At their last meeting, England scored five goals while keeping a clean sheet, but Serbia will be fighting to stay in the competition, so could yet cause an upset, especially against a team that is already through.

England – Aiming to continue their unbeaten run

England have flown through this group and became the first European team to qualify from the UEFA section, ensuring top spot in Group K. Having kept a clean sheet in the qualification stage up to now, England have only increased their goal scoring prowess, beating Andorra 1-0 then 2-0, Albania 2-0 and Latvia 3-0 and 5-0. Of course, the last time they met Serbia they won 5-0, with each goal scored by a different player, so they have plenty of versatility in attack! Let’s face it on current form, this should make the England vs Serbia prediction that England will take another win here, though it may be that they take a more experimental approach with the result not now making a difference to their World Cup Final prospects.

Serbia – Can they stay in the competition?

Although Serbia sits just one point behind Albania at the time of writing, the fact that the Albanians take on Andorra the same night, this advantage is more than likely to extend to 4 points. That means that Serbia will have to gain at least one point here if they want to retain any hope of staying in this competition and progressing past the qualification stage. Serbia have had mixed success in the group matches thus far. They began with a goalless draw against Albania, followed by wins against Andorra and Latvia, and that crushing 5-0 defeat to England. A 1-0 defeat at home to Albania has left them in a perilous position despite the 3-1 win over Andorra that followed it. Of course, Serbia will be hoping for three points from this match, and the only hope they will hold is that England will be distracted by their early qualification success.

England vs Serbia – Possible lineups

England

With this being one of the last competitive matches for England before the World Cup, it is likely that they will employ the same 3-2-4-1 formation that worked so successfully for them last time they met Serbia. Harry Kane will likely head up the attack as he did last time, as the captain never misses a chance to play for his country!

Harry Kane

Anthony Gordon

Morgan Rogers

Noni Madueke

Declan Rice

Eliott Anderson

Tino Livramento

Marc Guéhi

Ezri Konsa

Nico O’Reilly

Jordan Pickford.

Serbia

Serbia also plays a 3-2-4-1 formation. They missed several key players in the recent matches against Albania and Andorra but Serbia’s coach Dragan Stojkovic should have both goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic and midfielder Ivan Ilic back from injury. I am estimating a likely line up to include the following players:

Luka Jovic

Aleksandar Mitrovic

Andrija Zivkovic

Nikola Stulic

Ivan Ilic

Nemanja Maksimovic

Nemanja Gudelj

Kosta Nedeljkovic

Strahinja Pavlovic

Strahinja Erakovic

Vanja Milinkovic-Savic.

Where to watch England vs Serbia

Text commentary for World Cup qualifying matches is available on the ESPN website. England vs Serbia is available to watch on television or online in a number of locations:

• RTVE PLAY
• UEFA.tv
• Prime Video UK

Prediction England vs Serbia

Given the impressive 5-0 victory that England had over Serbia at their last meeting and Serbia’s need to win. I think we can expect to see a match with plenty of goals, so a bet on over 2.5 goals in this match is worth a punt.

Given England’s unbroken record thus far in this tournament, a second win for them against Serbia is on the cards, especially as they will have the home advantage this time around. Therefore, England to win would be a good shout, but the odds are unlikely to be very profitable on a match winner selection, as the bookies are likely to see England as the clear favourite, too.

In my opinion, over 2.5 goals is a decent prediction and where I would put my money for this match, as it should offer more favourable odds than a match winner market, and cover for the unlikely event that Serbia will produce a rash of goals and take the win as a reflection of their determination (and perhaps, desperation) to gain a shot at the playoffs and a chance to progress further in this competition.

Odds will range from 1.80 to 2.20, and anything over 2.2 is great value.