Werder trio in international action as Austria beat Serbia

Austria entered the friendly looking to extend their winning run to six games in front of a home crowd of 38,000 at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion. Romano Schmid, who had featured in all of the previous five victories, was named in the starting XI, while Werder new boy Marco Grüll had to settle for a place on the bench. 

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Grüll back in partial team training

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Serbia’s starting lineup featured SVW defender Milos Veljkovic, who is already assured of a place in Dragan Stojkovic’s final squad for EURO 2024 and went on to play the full 90 minutes in Vienna. Early goals from Wolfsburg’s Patrick Wimmer and Christoph Baumgartner of RB Leipzig put Ralf Rangnick’s side two to the good inside the opening 15 minutes. “You could tell that Austria had gained a lot of confidence from their last few wins,” said Veljkovic after the game.

Strahinja Pavlovic’s goal ten minutes before the break sparked hopes of a comeback for the Serbs, but in the end it proved little more than a consolation as the home defence remained resolute. “The game opened up a bit after the break, but overall we defended well,” opined the substitute Grüll. Veljkovic felt his side could have gotten a result from the game: “With a bit of luck, we could have grabbed an equaliser, but all in all it was a good test for us.”

Austria’s sixth win in succession will do their confidence no harm whatsoever heading into the finals, as Schmid explains: “The game was a particularly important one mentally – we know we can expect strong opposition like Serbia at the tournament.”

Werder’s number 20 and his Austria team-mates will travel to Switzerland on Saturday (18:00 CEST) for their final match before the finals, while Veljkovic and Serbia head north to Solna for a clash with Sweden, also on Saturday (18:00 CEST).