Serbia and Montenegro national football team

History

Post-1991

Although the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was formed on 28 April 1992, its teams were banned from all international sporting events, including association football, due to FIFA sanctions resulting from the Yugoslav Wars. Consequently, the national team did not play its first match as a new country until 23 December 1994, a 2–0 friendly defeat to Brazil in Porto Alegre. This was the first ever team composed of Serbian and Montenegrin players exclusively, while Slobodan Santrač, a former Yugoslavia national team player, was named the team's first-ever manager. The next match was played only three days later, a 1–0 loss to Argentina in Buenos Aires.

Due to the United Nations international sanctions, the team could not take part in the 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification, nor the UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying process.

On 31 March 1995, the team recorded its first official win in history, a 1–0 friendly against Uruguay, simultaneously marking the team's first-ever home match, played at Stadion Crvena Zvezda in Belgrade, and the first ever goal scored, courtesy of Savo Milošević. Slightly more than one year later, the team recorded its first-ever win in a FIFA World Cup qualifying tournament in its first match in such a tournament, a 3–1 win over the Faroe Islands. Shortly after, the team also recorded its biggest win in history, once again against the Faroe Islands, 8–1. FR Yugoslavia finished second in Group 6, just behind Spain, meaning it had to go through the play-off system in order to qualify. FR Yugoslavia was paired up with Hungary, and what was believed would be a tough matchup turned out to be an easy win for FR Yugoslavia, 7–1 in Budapest and 5–0 in Belgrade, for an aggregate score of 12–1. This was enough to secure FR Yugoslavia's first-ever World Cup appearance as a new country.

The 1998 World Cup seeding had FR Yugoslavia ranked in the 21st position, but the Yugoslav national team went to France as one of the shadow favorites for the World Cup. The New York Times stated FR Yugoslavia could easily be a semi-finalist in that year's World Cup. The justification for such estimation was partially found in the names of the Yugoslav players, members of great European teams and proven footballers. Placed in Group F alongside Germany, the United States and Iran, Yugoslavia won their first match against Iran thanks to a free kick from Siniša Mihajlović, though in the next match against Germany, he scored an own goal amidst a 2–0 lead; Oliver Bierhoff equalised with only about ten minutes to spare. Nonetheless, Yugoslavia won 1–0 over the United States, placing themselves second in Group F behind Germany.

Ilija Petković era (2003–2006)

After Savićević's disastrous spell as head coach, the country went under a political transformation, and Ilija Petković became Serbia and Montenegro's new coach. Initially, the team under his lead experienced dragging failure in the Euro 2004 qualifiers while competing for the first time as Serbia and Montenegro. Despite drawing both matches against group favourites and eventual group winners Italy, and winning both matches against group runners-up Wales, Serbia and Montenegro failed to qualify, mostly due to an embarrassing 2–2 home draw and 2–1 away loss to Azerbaijan.

However, Serbia and Montenegro qualified for the 2006 World Cup. Serbia and Montenegro began their 2006 World Cup campaign by finishing first with an undefeated record in their qualification group ahead of favourites Spain. The Serbia and Montenegro team also allowed only one goal in its ten matches, the best defensive record out all 51 teams participating in qualification. For the 2006 qualifiers, Serbia and Montenegro was drawn in a group with Spain, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lithuania and San Marino. Led once again by Ilija Petković, Serbia and Montenegro played some impressive defensive football: the "Famous Four" defence consisting of Nemanja Vidić, Mladen Krstajić, Goran Gavrančić and Ivica Dragutinović, with Dragoslav Jevrić as goalkeeper allowed only one goal in ten matches, finishing first in their group with a 6–4–0 record.

On 3 June 2006, following a referendum, Montenegro declared its independence from Serbia. As the World Cup was about to start, it was decided that the Serbia and Montenegro team that had qualified for the tournament would compete, with the split into separate teams representing the new countries of Montenegro and Serbia to take place once the team was eliminated from the tournament. Thus, the team played in the tournament representing a state that no longer existed. Only one Montenegrin-born player, goalkeeper Dragoslav Jevrić, was in the squad.

In the group stage of the World Cup, Serbia and Montenegro lost their opening match to joint group favourites the Netherlands 1–0, with Arjen Robben scoring the only goal of the match. They then lost their second match to Argentina 6–0, the side's worst ever international result. With the team's two losses and with Netherlands and Argentina winning both their games, Serbia and Montenegro could no longer qualify for the knockout matches, and was playing for pride alone in their final group match against the Ivory Coast, who had also been mathematically eliminated. Despite having a 2–0 lead for much of the first half, the Elephants managed to come back and win 3–2, leaving Serbia and Montenegro with a disappointing 0–0–3 World Cup run to conclude its existence.

After dissolution

A week after Serbia and Montenegro's final match against the Ivory Coast, the Football Association of Montenegro applied for separate membership to UEFA. The Football Association of Serbia was granted Serbia and Montenegro's place in UEFA and FIFA, with the new Serbia national team playing its first match in August 2006 against the Czech Republic. The Montenegro national team played its first international following admittance to UEFA against Hungary in March 2007.

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

The following is a table of Yugoslavia's results in FIFA World Cups. Highest achievements, those in the inaugural 1930 and 1962 editions, are indicated in yellow highlight.

1930 to 1990 – See Yugoslavia

1994 – Banned because of international sanctions due to the Yugoslav wars (as FR Yugoslavia)

1998 – Round 2 (as FR Yugoslavia)

2002 – Did not qualify (as FR Yugoslavia)

2006 – Round 1 (as Serbia and Montenegro)

UEFA European Championship

1960 to 1992 – See Yugoslavia

1992 – Qualified, but banned because of international sanctions during Yugoslav Wars (as FR Yugoslavia)

1996 – Banned because of sanctions (as FR Yugoslavia)

2000 – Quarter-finals (as FR Yugoslavia)

2004 – Did not qualify (as FR Yugoslavia/Serbia and Montenegro)

UEFA European Championship record

Champions Runners-up Third place Fourth place

Major competitions squads

World Cup

1998 World Cup squad

2006 World Cup squad

European Championship

UEFA Euro 2000 squad

Coaches

Slobodan Santrač (1994 – July 1998)

Milan Živadinović (August 1998 – 1999)

Vujadin Boškov (1999 – July 2000)

Ilija Petković (August 2000 – January 2001)

Milovan Đorić (February 2001 – 6 May 2001)

3-man commission: Dejan Savićević, Vujadin Boškov and Ivan Ćurković (6 May 2001 – December 2001)

Dejan Savićević (December 2001 – June 2003)

Ilija Petković (July 2003 – June 2006)

Honours

Friendly

Lunar New Year Cup

Champions (1): 1995

Millennium Super Cup

Champions (1): 2001

Korea Cup

Runners-up (1): 1997

Kirin Cup

Runners-up (1): 2004

Awards

FIFA Best Mover of the Year 1997