“For their motivation, I think I can give them 10/10”: Stojković reacts to narrow England defeat

Serbia manager Dragan Stojković spoke to reporters after his underdog side were beaten 1-0 by England in Gelsenkirchen in their first EURO2024 game.

England dominated the first half and Jude Bellingham’s early header proved the difference – but Serbia gave them serious problems in the second half and looked close to scoring several times.

Stojković said: “I think that the match was a very good one, high quality from both teams. The English team is a very good one, very strong, but Serbia played a very brave game, really the style of football that we are aiming to play.

“We managed to get where we wanted – with control of the ball and to make England defend. I’m proud of what we did, we didn’t deserve to lose but we’re going to keep going on.

“I’m very proud of how the players reacted and what they’ve done. They ran for so many kilometres.“

Serbian captain Dušan Tadić was benched at first for the game, only coming on in the second half. Stojković explained: “Tadić started on the bench for tactical reasons – I wanted to have him with fresh legs for the second 45 minutes. It was about tactics.”

Another selection decision that drew interest was the selection of Predrag Rajković in net over the likes of Vanja Milinković-Savić.

“I took the decision some days ago, if you really want to know. But regardless – Milinković would have been in the goal, there would have been no issues at all.

“[Rajković] is a great goalkeeper, full of confidence. In the last six months he’s shown very high performance playing for the club and I don’t have a doubt that we have great goalkeepers.”

He compared the performance and Serbia’s situation to the World Cup in Qatar in 2022: “We’ve improved since then. All the players are fit, there are no selection problems like in Qatar, everyone is really motivated and we’re all trying to give our best for the team. Everything is focused on the team spirit and today all the players tried their best to score a goal. The situation is good, everybody is ready to play and after that it’s up to me. In Qatar, that was a disaster – seven or eight players out – and it was really hard to put a team together.”

The only injury concern for Stojković tonight is Filip Kostić, who went off injured in the first half.

“We will see tomorrow. He’ll have the medical checks tomorrow. He felt pain in the external part of the knee, it could be ligaments but we can’t know for sure. He has ice on his knee now, but we will know more tomorrow.”

Summarising his thoughts, he said: “I’m not satisfied with the result, of course, but it is what it is.

“I have congratulated all the players for everything that they’ve shown tonight, there are no frustrations apart from the result.

“Congratulations for engagement, for trying, for the style of the football.”

Finally, when asked how his attackers performed, he said: “I think that their engagement was above average, they’ve done all that they could, they ran so much. It wasn’t easy to play against Stones and the rest of the team. At the end of the day, it is really a pity that we haven’t managed to score, but when it comes to, let’s say, their engagement and their will, their motivation, I think I can give them 10/10. they have fought very well.“

Serbia now turn their attention to their meeting with Slovenia on Thursday.

Follow reaction to tonight’s result from the England camp, and the rest of EURO2024, here on FromTheSpot.