Advertisement

Soccer-New Serbia coach keen to tempt Vidic back

By Zoran Milosavljevic BELGRADE, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Serbia will try to persuade Nemanja Vidic to come out of international retirement in a bid to qualify for Euro 2016, new coach Radovan Curcic said on Wednesday. Former Manchester United defender Vidic quit the national team after their failure to reach Euro 2012 and has struggled to fit in at Inter Milan after his move to Italy in July. "Talking about Vidic's qualities would be superfluous because his consistency down the years have shown that he is one of the best defenders in Europe," Curcic told a news conference. "Of course we would love to have him back but we have months to go before our next match and in the next few weeks we have to talk to several players to see what their plans are." Curcic, 42, was appointed on Tuesday after an impressive record with the under-21s, having steered them to next year's European Championship after a shock 2-1 aggregate win over holders Spain in the playoffs. He replaced Dutchman Dick Advocaat, who quit after a 3-1 home defeat by Denmark on Nov. 14 left Serbia with one point from two games in Group I, pending UEFA's final verdict on their home qualifier against Albania in October. The match was abandoned after a drone stunt triggered a player brawl and a pitch invasion by Serbian fans who attacked the visiting players. UEFA awarded Serbia a 3-0 walkover win after Albanian players refused to carry on but also docked them three points for the fan violence. Both sides have appealed the verdict. Curcic's first games in charge will be visits to Portugal in March and Denmark in June and he acknowledged Serbia face an uphill battle to qualify. "It's no time to make any promises as the match against Portugal will be the first of five cup ties and we have to win all of them if we are to advance to Euro 2016," he said. "Hence we need all the resources at hand and therefore we will also talk to Neven Subotic and Adem Ljajic, who parted ways with the national team but I think the differences they had with the staff are not irreconcilable. "We have plenty of good individuals but the results in the last few years have been below par, so the players have to give their egos a rest and put their hearts on the sleeve whether they play 90 minutes or are unused substitutes." (Writing by Zoran Milosavljevic; editing by Justin Palmer)