page_title: Serbia national football team
section_title: 2010 World Cup
hierarchical_section_title: Serbia national football team / History / 2006–present: Contemporary history / 2010 World Cup
caption_attribution_description: English: Serbian national soccer team
context_page_description: The Serbia national football team represents Serbia in men's international football competition. It is controlled by the Football Association of Serbia, the governing body for football in Serbia.
  With the national team nicknamed the Orlovi, football has a long history in Serbia. Serbia competed under the various forms of Yugoslav national teams where it achieved considerable success, playing the final at the 1960 and 1968 European Championships and finishing fourth at the 1930 and 1962 World Cups. Considered by FIFA and UEFA to be the successor of both the Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro national teams, the achievements of the promising team of the 1990s was somewhat curbed due to international sanctions imposed against Yugoslavia at the time due to the Yugoslav Wars.
  Following the dissolution of Serbia and Montenegro, Serbia has played as an independent nation since 2006, and qualified for the World Cup in 2010 and 2018.
  Serbia usually use the home of Red Star Belgrade, the Rajko Mitić Stadium, as their home ground. Occasionally, the Partizan Stadium is also used.
context_section_description: Subsequent to Ðukić's rapid departure, Radomir Antić was appointed coach and success followed. Serbia's World Cup qualification campaign began in 2008. Their qualification group featured 1998 World Cup winners and 2006 World Cup runners-up France, Romania, as well as Austria, Lithuania and the Faroe Islands. Serbia played consistently during the qualifiers and this led to the team automatically qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. They confirmed qualification with a 5–0 win at home against Romania.
  Like in 2006, Serbia went into the World Cup as the dark horses of the tournament. Key points justifying their potential surprise team status included a star-studded defence that was composed by Nemanja Vidić, Neven Subotić, Aleksandar Kolarov and Branislav Ivanović. The captain of Serbia's 2010 World Cup campaign was Dejan Stanković, who became the only player to feature in a World Cup having played under three different national names (although he never changed nationality; this was a result of geopolitical events involving the identity of Yugoslavia). In their first tournament as an independent nation, they were to face Ghana, Germany and Australia.
  Their opening group game was against Ghana and chances came to both sides but a red card to Aleksandar Luković and a handball by substitute Zdravko Kuzmanović in the second half gave Ghana a penalty to take all three points at the death. Asamoah Gyan converted eight minutes from full-time and Serbia were defeated 1–0.
  In Serbia's second group match, they defeated Germany by a score of 1–0 with a goal by Milan Jovanović late in the first half. FIFA's official YouTube channel called the win "the most famous day in Serbia's footballing history".
  Serbia only needed a single point to reach the knockout stages but was defeated by Australia 2–1. Australia scored two goals in the second half through Tim Cahill and Brett Holman. A late Marko Pantelić goal served only as a consolation. They finished last in the group.
  Radomir Antić was sacked two games into the Euro 2012 qualification process, a 1–1 draw at home to Slovenia spelling the end to his two-year stint. The sacking meant the bringing in of Vladimir Petrović to the job.
caption: Atmosphere at the start of match vs. France, 9 September 2009
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