Serbia 2-1 Saudi Arabia Highlights, International Friendly: Pavlovic, Mitrovic Complete Turnaround For Eagles

Good evening, football fans! This is the start of the of our live blog covering Serbia’s friendly match against Saudi Arabia. Stay tuned for pre-match updates and line-ups as they are released.

• Fixture: Serbia vs Saudi Arabia

• Series: FIFA International Friendly

• Venue: TSC Arena, Backa Topola, Serbia

• Date: Tuesday, March 31, 2026

• Time: 9:30 PM IST

• Serbia: RTS 1, Arena 1 Premium

• Saudi Arabia: STC TV

Saudi Arabia have secured qualification to the FIFA World Cup 2026. They have been drawn in Group H along with Spain, debutants Cape Verde, and Uruguay. The Green Falcons will begin their campaign on June 16 against Uruguay at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

Starting XI: Predrag Rajkovic (gk); Strahinja Erakovic, Nikola Milenkovic, Strahinja Pavlovic, Aleksa Terzic; Aleksandar Stankovic, Lazar Samardzic; Mijat Gacinovic, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Viljko Birmancevic; Luka Jovic.

Bench: Vanja Milinkovic-Savic (gk), Djordje Petrovic (gk), Stefan Bukinac, Vanja Dragojevic, Nemanja Gudelj, Dejan Joveljic, Filip Kostic, Vasilije Kostov, Sasa Lukic, Ognjen Mimovic, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Kosta Nedeljkovic, Njegos Petrovic, Petar Ratkov, Petar Stanic.

Starting XI: Mohammed Al Owais; Saud Abdulhamid, Muteb Al Mufarrij, Rayan Hamed Hamidou, Nawaf Boushal; Marwan Al Sahafi, Naif Masoud, Ziyad Al Johani; Mohamed Kanno (c), Abdullah Al Hamdan, Abdulaziz Al Aliwa.

Bench: Nawaf Al Aqidi (gk), Ahmed Ali Al Kassar (gk), Mohammed AL Rubaie (gk), Firas Al Buraikan, Khalifah Al Dawsari, Salman Al Faraj, Khalid Al Ghannam, Musab Al Juwayr, Abdullah Al Khaibari, Mohammed Al Majhad, Saleh Al Shehri, Mohammed Mahzari, Ali Majrashi, Ayman Yahya.

We are off and running! Serbia waste no time pushing forward, immediately asking questions of Saudi Arabia’s backline. Just two minutes in, the pressure tells, Ziyad Al Johani is forced into action and can only turn it behind under pressure.

Corner to Serbia early doors, and they’ve set the tone already.

Out of nowhere, Saudi Arabia strike first! Eight minutes on the clock and the Green Falcons pounce! Following a horrible mistake by Terzic at the back, Al-Hamddan wins the race to the ball against Rajkovic, stabbing home from point-blank range. Serbia shoot themselves in the foot!

Serbia are knocking on the door now. Luka Jović does well to tee it up in a dangerous central pocket, and Lazar Samardžić pulls the trigger, but it’s brave defending from the Green Falcons, throwing bodies in the way to deny a certain threat.

Tensions starting to creep in as the Green Falcons try to slow things down. Mohamed Kanno goes in a bit too aggressively and catches his man late, the referee has no hesitation in reaching for the yellow.

With more than half an hour of football played, Serbia have regained their football hold in the contest and are pushing hard for an equaliser. The ball is floated in towards the Saudi penalty area, where Jovic is clattered by Al-Mufarrij. However, the referee waves play on. Not much protest from the Serbians.

Other than Saudi Arabia's opener, it has been a really flat game so far – not the best of watches for the neutral fans. Serbia have pushed hard to level the scores, but their finishing has been wayward. Meanwhile, the fourth official indicates a minimum of two minutes to be added on.

The referee blows his whistle to bring the first half to an end. Other than Terzic's mistake leading to the first – and only – goal, it has been a game of few exciting moments. Let's hope it opens up more in the second half.

The players are out on the pitch, and Saudi Arabia get the ball rolling to kick off the second half. A couple of changes at the break for both sides, which includes a couple of debutants. Meanwhile, Petrovic replaces Rajkovic between the sticks.

A corner from the left is floated in the Saudi box, which the defenders can't clear properly. It makes its way to Bimrancevic, who is probably caught a bit flat footed as his shot – low and hard – is easily saved by Al-Owais.

Mitrovic, who came on moments ago as a substitute, almost finds the equaliser with a pin-point shot from close range. However, the Saudi defence does well to block it, and Stankovic's corner is cleared.

What a marvellous goal from Pavlovic to draw Serbia level!! After a ping-pong in the box, the ball reaches Milinkovic-Savic, who tees up Terzic. The full-back, whose error led to Saudi's opener, plays a sumptous cross. Pavlovic hits an bicycle kick that flies past the goalkeeper!

Mitrovic needs just four minutes to put Serbia ahead, and this is a completely different game now. It's free-flowing football from the hosts, with Mimovic floating in a good cross into the box. Mitrovic gets in between the two defenders and heads it past the goalkeeper.

With the clock ticking away, Serbia look content to pass the ball among themselves in their own half. Not much fire being shown by Saudi Arabia either, as they would probably avoid overexertion and a possible injury before their World Cup campaign begins.

With Serbia dictating the contest, the fourth official holds up his board to indicate a minimum of three minutes to be added on at the end of regulation time. Not a lot of time, to be fair, considering the number of substitutions we had in the second half.

The referee blows his whistle to signal the end of the match. It has been all Serbia in tonight's game, and once Mitrovic completed the turnaround, there was never any doubt about the result of the game. A good performance from the Eagles, while the Green Falcons suffer back-to-back defeats.