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Serbia coach Stojkovic laments ‘shocking’ defending in loss to Switzerland

Serbia coach Dragan Stojkovic was at a loss to explain why his team conceded twice after taking a lead in their 3-2 defeat by Switzerland in Friday’s final Group G encounter that saw his team eliminated from the World Cup.

Switzerland’s victory left Serbia bottom of the group with just one point as they crashed out of the group stage yet again. Serbia have never moved past the World Cup group stage since the breakup of Yugoslavia.

“When you lose the game, of course we think about (mistakes made by) the defensive line, but we defend and attack as a team,” Stojkovic said.

“We reversed it after 0-1 to make it 2-1, but again we didn’t play well defensively. It was so easy for the Swiss to score the second goal, which was really shocking for us. Psychologically, it was very positive for the Swiss.

“These kinds of things at this level of play are forbidden. If you repeat these mistakes, it is very difficult to win. In the future we must work hard and do everything to resolve the problem.”

Serbia leave Qatar without a win and with just one point after three games and Stojkovic blamed the lack of match fitness among his key players coming into the World Cup.