regular finalists or not for Montenegro ?

It all depends on how their youth resources develop.

Currently they have enough attacking and midfield talent to reach a World Cup, but their defensive is less sturdy.

The facilities in Montenegro are not the greatest, but it is just developing in terms of infrastructure. Let's not forget however that it is a very small country... smaller than Los Angeles in terms of population.

But they have Vucinic, Jovetic, Vukcevic, Drincic, Burzanovic.. all players that have attacking pedigree.

If Ivan Fatic of Genoa/Inter and a couple of other defenders pop up who knows... I wouldn't put it past them getting into the next Euro as the field is expanding to 24 teams instead of the current 16.

I definitely think they have more talent than the sides you mention considering how small the country is. I mean Dejan Savicevic and Predrag Mijatovic are both from Montenegro.

Not many people outside of the Balkans know that.

Plus the both times they played Italy they put up great performances only losing 2-1 and 1-0. With the right coach they could do well.

And the 1-0 loss at home came because Graham Poll, an English ref was afraid to give Fabio Canavarro a red card after a deliberate foul on Jovetic as the last man. He was too scared to put Italy's chances of qualifying in jeopardy.

Montenegro dominated the first ten minutes of that game and if they had gotten Canavarro sent off I think the outcome would have been different.

As for the game in Bari, Italy were lucky not to draw from what I saw.

 

Yes, the offense is clicking with Vucinic popping up. But what has been more impressive is the defense, which has not conceded against Wales, Bulgaria, and Switzerland.

England will pose a tough challenge, as it will be the toughest game of the qualifiers, but thus far Montenegro has exceeded expectation.

And they are doing all of this without Stevan Jovetic! And Nikola Drincic!

 

If they can miraculously pull off a draw @ England, they win this group. I mean I'd give them like a 15% chance of not losing that game and drawing, which is good for a 600,000 population country against a 53,000,000 population superpower

 

Sorry if this is the wrong thread or not, but could somebody tell if Steven Jovetic is usually a first team selection for Montenegro. I know he's been injured since August, but when he was healthy was a guaranteed starter or just occasionally?


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Jovetic is an undisputed started for Montenegro. It's just that it has been a long road to recovery since his injury that he has only recently started to play for the first team at Fiorentina. In the past international break Montenegro did not have a game, so I'm assuming he will be included in the next qualifier for Euro 2012 when he is in full form. Along with Vucinic and Vukcevic he is the greatest attacking talent from Montenegro in this decade.

 

Yeah I sort of assumed he had missed out because of his injury. The reason I asked is when I looked at his cap numbers and the numbers of games missed, I thought it was possible for injury to be the cause.

Do you think he is one of the elite young talents of Europe as well?