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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Mark Walker

Aleksandar Mitrovic sounds Scotland battle cry as Serbia striker makes 'no doubt' declaration

Serbia striker Aleksandar Mitrovic believes his side will have too much for Scotland if they perform at their best next month.

Thursday's win over Israel ensured Steve Clarke 's side will face a one-off tie in Belgrade as they bid to end a 22 year absence from a major tournament.

A strong Serbia side stand between them and Euro 2020 though, with the Balkan state defeating Norway in extra time.

The likes of Luka Jovic, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Aleksandar Kolarov and Dusan Tadic are experienced at the very highest level and Mitrovic is prolific up-front.

The Fulham striker has 35 goals in 58 caps and at the age of 26 needs just four more to become his nation's all-time top goalscorer.

Serbia's striker Aleksandar Mitrovic celebrates after scoring (AFP or licensors)

Mitrovic said after the Norway game: "We deserved that. We gave so much over 120 minutes in what was an incredibly hard match.

"In all honesty, we should have won by more goals, but that's football. We wanted it more. The important thing is we qualified.

"I don't think we lost a 50-50 challenge. We fought for every ball and our desire to win.

"Now it's important to beat Scotland. There's no point beating Norway if we lose to the Scots. If we play the same way as we did in Oslo, we qualify, no doubt."

And Serbia boss Ljubisa Tumbakovic revealed he will immediately go to work now and study Scotland, after shutting up his critics.

The 68-year-old manager was infuriated before the game at being asked whether he would resign if they lost in Norway, but he insisted he never had any doubts over his side.

He said: "That game in Oslo was the culmination in seven months of hard work, since the original game was postponed.

"We have spent every day of that time looking at Norway. Now we will spend all our time looking at Scotland.

"Perhaps we should have won it in normal time because I think it was obvious we had more quality than them.

"We scouted every single aspect of Norway - the way they played and we worked on cutting out the service to their strikers.

"We were disciplined, showed fighting spirit and desire. From tomorrow, I will watch Scotland.

"Our goal has always been to qualify for the Euros and we are in a position now to do that."

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