Thomas Tuschel placed his team in a high alert before the key England fixtures in Serbia. He acknowledges that due to the expected burning atmosphere in Belgrade, he could potentially encounter their most demanding fixtures in this qualifying campaign. Tuchel also warned players to continue to pay attention to the risks surrounding bookings and layoffs amid intimidating noises towards Group K’s nearest rivals.
Serbia has already been handed a partial stadium ban – 15% of the 51,000-person ability will continue to be closed – sanctions for racist behavior during World Cup qualifying against Andorra in June. Tuchel highlighted the competitive side as another potential concern, although Rajko Mitic Stadium is equally notorious for its deafening and loud environment.
Tuchel said: “We prepare the headline, it will be an emotional crowd.
“We have to adapt to adversity and overcome adversity. Let’s see what the pitch is like and how the game works.
“It’s a good test and we look forward to it. We feel that atmosphere, physicality and it’s ready to be a group’s emotional and very important game. We’ll prepare for it.
“It can happen in any match. We prepare for the best version of our opponent and adapt to what comes.
“Maybe we get a quick goal or two and it’s a comfortable victory, or maybe we’re acknowledging it from the pieces of the set or biased shots.
“We need to be all ready, we face the same formation, 5-4-1 defensive block.
It comes after England struggled to impress on Saturday evening with a 2-0 victory over Minnow Andorra.
Tuchel chose three players for criticism after his final whilst at Villa Park.
“I think the energy was right, the quality was there and we should have scored more. After the first goal, we spent 10 or 15 minutes with too many ball losses, losing focus and focus, but we should find the second half again and score more.
“I think we missed a small moment to accelerate the game. Maybe Ebz (Eberechi Eze) didn’t have the best day at No. 10.
“The final pass from Noni Maduke was not clinical enough and Marcus Rashford had good moments but couldn’t finish them.”
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