Turin, Ilic with Serbia as a starter: the European Championship to relaunch in the grenade

Journalist

June 8 – 09:27 – MILAN

Action. Because Ivan Ilic’s Europe could start today from Stockholm. The appointment is at 6 pm, when Serbia will have its dress rehearsals for the European Championship in the Friends Arena in Solna, a suburb of the Swedish capital. It will be the second and last friendly before the debut in Germany. Whispers, traces, indications: the Serbian coach, Dragan Stojkovic, is about to give his confidence to the Granata midfielder from the first minute. From Turin the eyes are interested, the club carefully monitors his evolution in the national team. Ilic needs a nice Euro-opportunity to relaunch himself after a year of ups and downs.

First change

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In the Belgrade Eagles’ first pre-European test, Ilic was Stojkovic’s first substitution. On Tuesday 4 June, Serbia lost two to one in Vienna against Austria (two national teams qualified for the final phase of the European Championship). Stojkovic’s tactical setup revolves around the 4-2-3-1, with Ilic in charge of carrying out tasks in midfield. In the middle, against Austria, Stojkovic started with the duo of Nemanja Maksimovic (of Getafe) and Sergej Milinkovic (formerly of Lazio). Taking it for granted that Sergej is a pillar of Serbia, the ballot will affect Maksimovic and Ilic for the entire European Championship. Halfway through the friendly match against the Austrians, Maksimovic was forced to be replaced due to a blow to the head. The Turin player came on in his place and remained on the pitch for 48 minutes.

Italian Serbia

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The rumors coming from the Serbian retreat tell of Ilic today being the favorite for a place in the eleven. For him it will be an important first opportunity to start shining again after a second part of the championship, in Serie A, between good and less good things and the injury that kept him sidelined in March and for most of April. He will be favored in the national team by the presence of many “Italians”, that is, many players who play – or have recently played – in our championship. With whom Ilic has consolidated friendships: there is the goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic, his teammate at Toro. Then Sasa Lukic, now at Fulham, who he has known all his life. And Sergej Milinkovic, the Juventus players Vlahovic and Kostic, the Florentine Milenkovic, Samardzic of Udinese, the AC Milan player Jovic.

Trust

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Dragan Stojkovic is someone who is now at home in Turin. In the last two years, due to the high concentration of Serbian footballers between Torino and Juventus, he has often been spotted under the Mole. He was seen just as many times at the Olimpico Grande Torino stadium to closely observe the evolution of Ivan Ilic, and of course the other Serbs who wore the grenade in the last two years. Which is why the Eagles’ selector knows Ilic’s qualities and potential in depth. From Serbia they say that he wanted him at the European Championship certainly not to dedicate a supporting role to him. Far from it, the city imagines him as the protagonist. Here we go: Ilic’s Euro-adventure starts today.