Djuricic ends woeful Scotland’s World Cup hopes.
Filip Djuricic scored a second half double here on Tuesday as Serbia beat Scotland 2-0 and extinguished their extremely faint hopes of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup finals.
Gordon Strachan’s side headed to Serbia firmly rooted to the bottom of Group A with no wins and just two points from five games but still with an extremely slim mathematical chance of World Cup qualification.
However, Djuricic struck twice in five second half minutes to kill off any hopes as Scotland slipped to their fourth straight defeat in Group A.
Scotland have now gone seven competitive matches without a win for the first time in their history as the scale of the task facing Strachan, who took over in January, becomes apparent.
Strachan had reshuffled his pack for the match, making six changes from the 2-1 loss to Wales.
Brighton’s Liam Bridcutt and Hull’s George Boyd were both handed their debuts while Jordan Rhodes was handed his first competitive start.
David Marshall replaced Allan McGregor in goal as he made his first international appearance for three-and-a-half years.
And the keeper was called into action in the first minute as he raced out to block an early Serbian effort.
Strachan had promised there would be no repeat of the poor start Scotland had made against Wales last Friday however his side were under the cosh from the start.
Some calamitous defending allowed Dusan Basta space to fire in a shot from the edge of the box that Marshall was down smartly to stop at his near post.
Basta then turned provider for Branislav Ivanovic as he picked out his unmarked captain with a cross from the right but the Chelsea defender sent a header into the turf and it bounced wide.
The match only passed a late pitch inspection after Scotland’s fans helped clear the field of snow prior to the game but they would have wished they hadn’t bothered as Serbia created chance after chance.
Djuricic then did well to collect a lofted ball over the top and get away from Grant Hanley before getting away his shot but Marshall made a comfortable save.
Zoran Tosic picked up a booking for scything down Rhodes before he rifled an angled shot just wide of Marshall’s post as Scotland survived another scare.
Scotland made a much brighter start to the second half.
Charlie Adam replaced James McArthur at the break and made an instant impact as his determination to win the ball set up Naismith to curl the ball past Stojkovic in the 49th minute but his effort was disallowed for offside.
Rhodes then fired straight at Stojkovic when clean through after a mistake in the Serbian defence as Scotland had their first shot on target but less than a minute later Serbia took the lead through Djuricic.
Steven Whittaker did well to block a shot by Ljubomir Fejsa but his attempted clearance went only as far as Djuricic who lifted the ball high past Marshall into the net from close range on the hour mark.
Djuricic got his second five minutes later to double his side’s advantage. Gary Caldwell’s clearance only went as far as Tosic who picked out Nenad Tomovic in the box.
His poked shot was saved by Marshall but the ball spilled to the alert Duricic who rolled the ball into the empty net in the 65th minute.
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