Your essential guide to England's first opponents: Meet the Serbian players, their stunning WAGs including Miss Earth contestant, fearsome 'strong boy' fans known for smashing heads and setting off flares at matches and 'national treasure' manager By Tom Cotterill Published: 07:56 BST, 16 June 2024 | Updated: 10:01 BST, 16 June 2024 e-mail View comments England will take on Serbia in Germany on Sunday night in the eastern European state's biggest match in more than two decades. Led by talisman and captain Dušan Tadić, a former Southampton player, the Serbian side will feature a host of stars England football fans will be familiar with. Among them is Chelsea goal-stopper Djordje Petrovic, who moved to the UK last year with his wife, Djina - who is Miss Serbia and a former Miss Earth contestant.
They are considered one of Serbia's hottest young couples. The weekend's opening match will be the first time Serbia has appeared at the European Championships since it became an independent republic in 2006, having last featured in the 2000 Euros as the former Yugoslavia. Serbia was previously led by former president Slobodan Milosevic, who infamously embroiled the country in a series of bloody conflicts with the successor Balkan states of Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo - which culminated in a bombing campaign by Nato against Serbia in 1999.
Before his death in 2006, the tyrant became the first European leader to go on trial for war crimes after his legacy of mayhem left 200,000 people.