Overview
The Mexican team entered this friendly match with impressive form when they were unbeaten in the last 7 matches, winning 5 and drawing 2 matches.
That streak includes a minimal 1-0 victory over Australia last week. Johan Vasquez's only goal in the first half helped El Tri make a difference.
Coach Javier Aguirre certainly expects his players to extend their winning streak with another victory, thereby maintaining their excitement before the World Cup.
As one of the three co-host countries of the 2026 World Cup, Mexico will open the tournament with a clash with South Africa on June 11, before facing South Korea and the Czech Republic in turn.
With home advantage and stable form in recent times, Mexico has full ground to confidently aim for favorable results, especially when the opponent Serbia is going through a period of instability.
Meanwhile, Serbia has only won 3 of their last 8 matches in all competitions and suffered 5 defeats.
Notably, 3 of those defeats caused coach Veljko Paunovic's team to miss the 2026 World Cup. Serbia only finished third in Group K of the qualifiers, one point behind second-placed Albania.
After an unsuccessful qualifying campaign, Serbia successively lost to Spain 0-3 and defeated Saudi Arabia 2-1 in the March international gathering. However, they continued to disappoint when they lost to Cape Verde 0-3 in the most recent match last weekend.
With the goal of quickly regaining his spirit after that defeat, Paunovic will try to help his students create a surprise at Estadio Nemesio Diez. However, this promises to be a significant challenge as Mexico will receive enthusiastic cheers from home fans.
Personnel situation
Coach Javier Aguirre made up to 11 changes in the starting lineup in the 1-0 victory over Australia. Therefore, the Mexican strategist is likely to give opportunities to the players who played the entire second half of that match.
According to this scenario, captain Edson Alvarez may give way to the central defender duo Cesar Montes and Jesus Gomez. In attack, the quartet Cesar Huerta, Gilberto Mora, Julian Quinones and Santiago Gimenez are expected to be present from the beginning.
On the other side, coach Veljko Paunovic is also predicted to make a series of adjustments after Serbia's disappointing performance in the 0-3 defeat to Cape Verde.
Names like Nikola Simic, Lazar Randelovic and Ognjen Mimovic are likely to be given the opportunity to start in the renewed squad of the European representative.
Expected lineup:
Ochoa, Reyes, Montes, Gomez, Gallardo, Vargas, Lira, Huerta, Mora, Quinones, Gimenez.
F. Stankovic, Mimovic, Simic, Pavlovic, Avdic, Petrovic, A. Stankovic, Zivkovic, Zukic, Randelovic, Ivanovic.
The match between Mexico and Serbia takes place at 9:00 AM on June 5th (Vietnam time).
