The story
Serbia carry the weight of a ghost. The nation competes under its own flag only since 2006, but the footballing soul stretches back through Yugoslavia — a side that reached the World Cup quarter-finals and produced some of European football's most technically gifted players. That history is a source of fierce pride and, occasionally, a quiet torment, because modern Serbia keeps arriving at tournaments brimming with talent and leaving with a suitcase full of what-ifs.
The identity of this team is built around physicality and fury. When Aleksandar Mitrović and Dušan Vlahović are both firing, Serbia have arguably the most aerially dominant, technically capable striking partnership at the entire tournament. Add Sergej Milinković-Savić pulling strings in midfield — all 6'2" of him gliding around like he borrowed a ballet dancer's touch and a bouncer's frame — and you have a team that can genuinely bully opponents into submission on their best days.
The question, as always, is whether they can string enough best days together. Serbia have a maddening tendency to produce one result that makes you believe — then follow it with one that makes you groan. North Macedonia in 2022 qualifying, anyone? But the talent is real, the hunger is real, and Dragan Džajić's footballing legacy deserves a successor story. Maybe, just maybe, this is the year the Orlovi finally soar past the group stage.
What to watch
Watching Vlahović and Mitrović share a pitch is like seeing two wrecking balls operate with genuine technical polish — it should not work as well as it does, and when it clicks, it is genuinely jaw-dropping. Casual fans who love a good old-fashioned centre-forward will find their people here.
X-factor
Sergej Milinković-Savić — on his day he is the rare midfielder who can simultaneously win a header, pick a Hollywood pass and make it all look effortless, and if he arrives at this tournament in form he is the engine that could drive Serbia somewhere they have never been.
Serbia will make you fall in love with them in one game and absolutely break your heart in the next — classic Orlovi, magnificent and maddening in equal measure.