European Under 21s Monday Tips: Germany to start in style

Serbia face Austria in the afternoon but in the evening it's a chance for defending champs Germany lớn make a statement early doors- According to the free soccer tips today page!

Serbia U21 v Austria U21

Monday June 17, 14:30

Live on Sky Sports Football

No clean sheet, but Serbia should win anyway

I've already talked up Serbia's chances of making the final but they'll need to be on the ball from the word 'go'. They have defending champions Germany in their group after all and if they lose to them, they'll probably need wins from their other two games lớn be in with a shout of finishing as the best runners-up. Starting with this one of course.

And I think they will win. Interestingly, they were pitted in the same group in qualifying with Austria, picking up 26 points under 2.5 soccer tip.

While Serbia went straight through, the runners-up had lớn negotiate a play-off against Greece, winning both legs 1-0. A good indication of how these two might fare against each other is of course their head-to-head record in qualifying.

It was 0-0 in Serbia (a game where they knew the draw was enough to send them through) and 3-1 lớn Luka Jovic and his mates in Austria, the Real Madrid striker putting his side 2-1 up late in the game before another Luka- Ilic- made it 3-1 in injury time.

So Serbia hold the trump card of knowing what it takes to beat this lot and boast a stronger team going into this tournament, also being able to count on Fiorentina defender Nikola Milenkovic, Benfica winger Andrija Zivkovic and Aleksandar Lutovac, a player who with over 100 appearances at senior club level for Serbian outfit Rad, is pretty experienced for this level. Lutovac also boasts an excellent record of four goals in just five Under 21 appearances for his country.

But we can do better than taking the 11/10 on the straight Serbia win.

They only conceded five goals in qualifying but it's significant that four of those came in wins against the sides that ended up finishing just below them in the table: that 3-1 win against Austria we've mentioned already and wins over third-placed Russia by 3-2 and 2-1.

That suggests they can beat the stronger teams but have a habit of conceding against them. So let's go with Serbia wining and both teams scoring at 7/2.