Serbia coach Dragan Stojkovic insisted Wednesday his side are "afraid of nobody" as they prepare to begin their World Cup campaign against the favourites Brazil.

"Brazil is a great team. For me it's a golden generation at the moment and we expect of course a difficult game but we must focus on our football and try to be good opponents," Stojkovic told reporters ahead of their Group G opener at Doha's Lusail Stadium on Thursday.

Serbia failed to make it out of their group four years ago after losing 2-0 to Brazil in their final match.

This time, however, they are potentially dangerous dark horses in Qatar after topping their qualifying group ahead of Portugal and most recently winning their UEFA Nations League section.

"We are afraid of nobody in the world, not even Brazil. We don't need to be afraid," insisted Stojkovic, who was appointed in February last year to succeed Ljubisa Tumbakovic after Serbia failed to qualify for Euro 2020.

Click here for full story

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.