Republic of Ireland v Serbia preview: Martin O’Neill’s men will top group with victory

Republic of Ireland have a chance to top Group D with a win over Serbia as their bid to reach the 2018 World Cup reaches a crucial point.

With three games remaining, Martin O’Neill’s men sit in second place, two points behind leaders Serbia and two ahead of third-placed Wales, who have a winnable trip to Moldova on Tuesday.

Qualification is in Ireland’s hands – win their final three games and they will qualify for Russia.
However, they missed the chance to put more pressure on Serbia on Saturday after they were held to a 1-1 draw in Georgia – a game where the visitors had just 26% possession, their lowest possession figure in qualifying.
Serbia’s recent results have been impressive with only Ireland and Wales having denied them victory during the World Cup qualifying campaign. However, they have had to show resilience to ease themselves clear at the top of the group with Newcastle striker Aleksandar Mitrovic scoring late equalisers in both games against Chris Coleman’s side.

Serbia will be guaranteed a top-two finish in Group D if they win and Wales lose to Moldova.

Team news

Jeff Hendrick is out of the showdown with Serbia after failing to shake off a thigh injury.
The 25-year-old Burnley midfielder was sent for a scan on Monday morning after complaining of still feeling discomfort as he tried to make himself available for Tuesday evening’s game at the Aviva Stadium after sitting out the 1-1 draw in Georgia on Saturday.

However, he and manager O’Neill have had to admit defeat and Hendrick will play no part in the Group D fixture.

O’Neill said: „He did some work with the medical team [on Sunday] and no, he’s still feeling it a little bit going completely full out, so he will miss out.“

The manager also has concerns over Wes Hoolahan and Aiden McGeady with the Norwich man nursing a sore groin and his Sunderland counterpart having had a scan on a hamstring problem.

Opta stats

Republic of Ireland have never beaten Serbia in four previous meetings (D3 L1).

Serbia have scored two goals in each of their previous two games against Republic of Ireland (W1 D1).

Ireland haven’t lost a competitive home match under O’Neill (W5 D4), last losing in September 2013 against Sweden under Giovanni Trapattoni.

Since gaining independence from Montenegro, Serbia have never lost a match against a side from Great Britain or Ireland, winning seven and drawing six of their 13 meetings.

Serbia are unbeaten in their last 10 World Cup qualifiers (W6 D4).

Mitrovic has found the net eight times in his last eight starts for Serbia – the only one of those starts he failed to score in was against Ireland in September last year.
Betting

Republic of Ireland can be backed at 19/10 to pick up what would be a huge three points against Serbia, who are slight favourites at 13/8. The Boys in Green haven’t drawn four competitive matches in a row since October 2000, but its 2/1 for that to change with another stalemate. Shane Long is rated as the most likely to open the scoring for Ireland at 11/2 with Mitrovic heading up that market at 9/2.Euro Soccer Bonus

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