The FFA has announced that the Socceroos will host Serbia in an international friendly at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne on Tueday, 7 June. The match continues the trend of Socceroos playing their 2010 FIFA World Cup opponents, having beaten Germany on March 29 in a reverse result of their World Cup humliations.
The Socceroos memorably beat Serbia 2-1 in the group stage of the World Cup.
Serbia sit at 16th in FIFA World Rankings with the Socceroos in 20th position.
“Melbourne football fans are arguably the most passionate in Australia and we are looking for a large crowd to bring a fantastic atmosphere to the match,” said FFA CEO Ben Buckley.
“The FIFA World Cup match at Nelspruit Stadium in South Africa last year will be remembered for the exceptional quality of the football and the great tussle between two committed teams and I’m sure that this re-match will be no different.”
Head Coach Holger Osieck, who triumphed over Germany, expressed his thoughts over the game:
“We all saw how Serbia played at last year’s World Cup. They are a very decent team, have a good standing in Europe with excellent players playing in top leagues,” Osieck said.
“This is definitely an opportunity for us to see where we are at.
“Our last match against Germany was very positive and we will be looking to keep and improve on that, standard in the coming months.
“For us, every match we play in the lead up to September is very important to make sure we are fully prepared for the qualification campaign,” concluded Osieck.
Match Details
Socceroos v Serbia
Etihad Stadium, Melbourne, Victoria
Tuesday, 7 June 2011 (kick-off time: 7:30pm AEST)
Deano
Guest
Peter you crack me up, Croation Flags??? What planet you from? All I know is I've got tickets and thats all that matters...The best team of the day will win and that's what sport is about not in-sighting or provoking people because of their nationality. Besides I think Serbs and Croats have moved away from that sought of rubbish. See you there...
gawa
Guest
Surely no-one can find anything to complain about this one, top stuff by FFA to choose Etihad for this one and pull a big crowd hopefully. I have a feeling that the next twleve months for football in Australia are going to be very good.
Peter Wilson
Roar Guru
Probably sell AAMI out pretty quickly. Docklands would be close to a sell out. I hope we see more Aussie flags than Serbian ones [or Croatian] at the game and the boys behave themselves. WIll be a good spectacle and a good test of how far we have come since the "ethnic" NSL days.
Football United
Guest
not docklands, its a bloody afl ground. play it at aami park.