Serbia and Montenegro national football team at the 2006 Football World Cup

by user Bobo

As part of the former Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro have never truly qualified before, (though they qualified as the Yugoslav Federal Republic in 1998), and as such have qualified under this name for the first time. Their European Championship record is also spotty, having had sanctions placed on the team by the big bosses due to Yugoslavian wars.

Serbia and Montenegro's cap leader and top scorer is Savo Milošević, former Aston Villa and Parma striker who currently plays in the Spanish Primera División with Osasuna. Serbia qualified as winners of UEFA Qualifying Group seven undefeated against the likes of Spain and Belgium, while in the process sending Spain through to the group playoffs as runners-up.

Victories against teams such as Belgium and Lithuania have proved their capabilities, and with only a single goal scored against them in the qualifiers, they boast the best defensive record of all teams during the preliminary rounds thus far. The other team in their qualifying group, San Marino, relied on the ubiquitous Andy Selva, representative of Calcio Padova from Italy's Serie C1/A, the third-tier Italian league.

Their qualifying group consists of Argentina, Côte d'Ivoire and the Netherlands. Very much sounding as though this could be the most difficult qualifying league of all, the qualification from this group is very much open between all four teams, but as one of the stronger debutants, it would be good to see Serbia come away with a good showing.

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