Late strike saves Serbians
Belgium 1-1 Serbia and Montengro
May 5 2006
By Andrew Haigh, Stade Jos Nosbaum, Dudelange.
Serbia and Monetnegro kept themsleves in the running for qualification from Group B with a dramatic 1-1 draw against
Belgium.
Darko Karadzic's goal, two minutes into injury time at the end of the match, handed the Serbians a vital point.
Both teams now sit in joint third with a single point, behind Germany and the Czech Republic who have four.
After losing their first matches of the finals, the duo began this match in a lucklustre fashion, and chances were
few and far between.
Serbia and Montenegro's stand out player Stevan Jovetic had the first opportunity to score on 12 minutes but his
header was saved comfortably by Belgian keeper Tom Vandenbossche.
This was a wake-up call for the Belgians who four minutes later should have taken the lead through Siegerd Degeling
but his shot from close range flew over the crossbar.
Belgium remained dominant on both sides of half time and were the first the break the deadlock with just nine minutes
left on the clock.
Maurizio Aquino shot across the keeper into the left of the goal to give the Belgians a deserved lead.
And it seemed that the slender one-goal advantage would be enough until in the final minute of stoppage time Karadzic
struck.
His deflected effort was a lifeline for the Serbians who would have been knocked out of the tournament had they
lost.
Teams:
Belgium: Tom Vandenbossche, Toby Alderweireld, Cor Gillis, Jeremy Huyghebaert, Axel Witsel, Siegard Degeling, Dieter
Wittesaele, Gael Arend, Livio D'Amires, Robbe Van Ruyskensvelde, Maurizio Aquino,
Subs: Cyprien Baguette, Enrico Pellegriti, Cedric Baes, Dwayne Dildick, Niels De Loof, Mehdi Carcela-Gonzalez,
Jens Van Damme,
Serbia and Montenegro: Marko Knezevic, Dusan Brkovic, Rajko Brezancic, Milos Nikolic, Nikola Gulan, Zarija Pelicic,
Stevan Jovetic, Veljko Vukovic, Goran Cetnik, Marko Nikolic, Slavko Lukic.
Subs: Zivko Zivkovic, Vladan Pelicic, Darko Karadzic, Nenad Adamovic, Slavko Perovic, |
