Serbia have crashed out of Euro 2024 at the group stage after opting against following through with their threat of quitting the tournament. The Serbian FA demanded that UEFA sanctioned Albania and Croatia after fans of both nations were accused of signing offensive chants towards them during a 2-2 draw in Group B.
Serbia finished rock-bottom of Group C after failing to win any of their games against England, Slovenia and Denmark.
Dragan Stojkovic’s side lost 1-0 against England in their opening match in Gelsenkirchen before Luke Jovic’s 95th-minute goal rescued a 1-1 draw against Slovenia in Munich.
They would have qualified for the last 16 by defeating Denmark on Tuesday night but played out a 0-0 stalemate on their return to the Allianz Arena.
England and Slovenia’s 0-0 tie saw Gareth Southgate’s men top Group C with just five points, while Slovenia finished second based on their disciplinary record.
Denmark, level on three points with Slovenia, will progress into the knockout stages as one of the four best third-place teams.
Serbia’s two-point finish has condemned them to an early exit less than a week after they threatened UEFA that they would throw Group C into chaos by walking away early.
Last Thursday, the Serbian FA took issue with alleged offensive chants from Croatia and Albania supporters during their entertaining clash in Hamburg.
“What happened is scandalous and we will ask UEFA for sanctions, even at the cost of not continuing the competition,” Serbian FA General Secretary Jovan Surbatovic said.
“We are sure that they will be punished because they have already responded to our appeal to remove the so-called journalist from Albania from the championship.
“We will request UEFA to punish the federations of both selections. We don’t want to participate in that, but if UEFA doesn’t punish them, we will think about how to proceed.
“We were punished for the cases of fishing and our fans behaved much better than the others.
“One fan was fined for racist abuse and we don’t want it to be attributed to others. We Serbs are gentlemen and we have an open heart, so I appeal to the fans to remain gentlemen.”
England were disappointing in Group C, with their 1-0 win against Serbia the only victory among all four teams involved.
Gareth Southgate’s side were underwhelming in all three of their matches but have topped the group and will face the Netherlands – third in Group D – in the round of 16.
