Great expectations

By Aleksandar Boskovic

Having failed to qualify for the finals of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or its U18 predecessor, since 1999, Serbia and Montenegro will be especially eager to make a favourable impression at this summer's event in Northern Ireland.

Fourth place
Yugoslavia were twice winners of the FIFA and UEFA junior tournament - the forerunner of the current event - triumphing in 1951 and 1979, but have found the going tougher since the European U18 Championship began in 1981. In fact, they finished in the first four of the event just once, in 2001, only to lose 6-2 to Spain in the third placed play-off.

Qualifying slip
Since the tournament became a U19 event at the start of 2001/02, Yugoslavia and subsequently Serbia and Montenegro have struggled to make much of an impression, being eliminated in the qualifying round in the tournament's first year. Victories at home against Belgium and Israel were offset by defeats by Romania and the Belgians as Mile Tomic's team finished third and bowed out.

Austrian elimination
A year later Yugoslavia squeezed into the Elite round, wins against Iceland and Slovenia proving sufficient to earn the runners-up berth despite a 4-1 reverse at the hands of Slovenia in the final round of Group 10 fixtures. By the time the next stage came round, Yugoslavia had become Serbia and Montenegro but, despite scoring five goals in each of their first two matches against Cyprus and F.Y.R. Macedonia, a 2-0 loss to Austria in the last match proved costly as the Austrians clinched first place.

Costly defeats
In 2003/04 Serbia and Montenegro once more edged through the first stage, finishing behind the Austrians but above Sweden as all three sides finished level on five points. Once more, however, the Elite round ended in disappointment as, despite a 4-0 opening win against Norway, defeats against the Republic of Ireland and Belgium left the Serbo-Montenegrins in third place.

Key players
Although drawing mainly from the second and third divisions of Serbo-Montenegrin football, Zvonko Zivkovic's squad also contains players with First League experience. FK Partizan midfielder Simon Vukcevic will be one notable absentee though as he is required for the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Champions League and made his senior international debut earlier this year, while FK Zeta forward Ivan Vukovic is out with a broken foot. OFK Beograd's Nemanja Arsenijevic is expected to recover from a thigh injury in time for the finals, and in Vukcevic's absence, FK Zemun's Marko Markovski will shoulder the goalscoring burden having scored 13 goals in nine appearances for the national team, including seven strikes in qualification. Attacking midfield player Borko Veselinovic, who plays his club football with Partizan but spent the last six months on loan at FK Obilic, contributed six goals en route to the finals. Zivkovic favours a 4-4-1-1 formation, with Milan Perendija and Tomislav Pajovic linking up in central defence ahead of goalkeeper Aleksandar Jovic while Milan Smiljanic, Borislav Pavlovic, Nebojsa Marinkovic and Vladimir Bogdanovic are likely to make up the first-choice midfield.

UEFA European Under-19 Championship best:
Elite round 2003

Honours in UEFA youth competitions:
UEFA European Under-16 Championship
Runners-up 1990
UEFA European Under-18 Championship
Fourth place 2001
UEFA European Under-21 Championship
Runners-up 1990, 2004

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