Canny Ivanović leads Serbia

Branislav Ivanović will bring plenty of experience to the Serbia side he will captain in the UEFA European Under-21 Championship - as it will be his third final tournament at this level.

Dream start
Ivanović made his bow in Germany 2004 as a second-half substitute in Serbia and Montenegro's opener against Croatia, and five minutes from time secured the winner in a 3-2 success for the eventual finalists. "That moment is still like a dream for me," he told uefa.com. "I came in from the right, watched the ball, shouted loud and scored my first goal for the national team. Definitely, that goal helped my team but it also meant so much to me. After that, I was able to continue with greater ease and full self-confidence."

'Strange championship'
Indeed, a year later Ivanović made his senior debut against Italy, and 12 months ago was in Portugal for his second U21 finals, as Serbia and Montenegro reached the last four, losing only on penalties against Ukraine. "That was a strange championship for us," the FC Lokomotiv Moskva defender said. "We lost the third group match against France and were in the dressing-room when we heard that Portugal had beaten Germany and we were in the semi-finals. Somewhere we lost concentration, and even more people expected success, especially after reaching the final in Germany."

Vast experience
So now Ivanović has a third chance, starting on Monday against Italy for the newly separate Serbia. "Everything is much better for me," he said. "I am older, have enough experience and very useful knowledge of the European stage. But, from this position, I know very well how difficult a job it will be in the Netherlands. When you have Italy, the Czech Republic and England as opponents, you can not say that you have an easy road. But on the other hand their qualities inspire us. Also, we have a very good team, in the squad we have nine players from the last [U21]EURO and four of us also played in Germany. We are rocks for our clubs and, for me, the most important detail is the fact that we know what we can do and what we want. All those things, with phenomenal team spirit, will be our weapons. We still dream about the European crown and we will work for that...."