Under-pressure Serbia already feeling the heat under blazing Balkan sky

It’s a long, straight motorway, cutting through endless fields of corn, which takes you from the centre of Belgrade to Stara Pazova where, tucked away at the back of a small industrial park, resides the modern home of Serbian football, a state of the art training complex opened in 2011.

But the road which has brought the national team to the start of another World Cup campaign has been far more tortuous.

While the country has enjoyed recent spectacular success at underage level, the senior team has failed to qualify for three tournaments on the trot since finishing last in their group at the World Cup finals in South Africa in 2010.