Montenegro national football team

Formation

Following the independence of Montenegro from Serbia and Montenegro, Serbia took Serbia and Montenegro's place in the Euro 2008 qualifying stage, but UEFA had stated that they would be willing to include Montenegro as a late entry, as long as FIFA had ratified a separate Montenegrin Football Association before September 2006, when the qualifying began. However, as of the competition beginning, this had not occurred. In October 2006, Montenegro was granted provisional membership of UEFA, with a debate on full membership scheduled at a full UEFA Congress in January 2007. Montenegro's first FIFA World Ranking was joint 199th place, the last place on the list. This is because they had a score of 0 when the rankings were worked out.

First matches

On 26 January 2007, the Montenegro FA was granted full membership of UEFA. Soon after that, the team played its first FIFA-recognized friendly match against Hungary on 24 March 2007 at Stadion Pod Goricom in Podgorica. Montenegrin team won with result 2–1 in front of 12,000 spectators. Striker Mirko Vučinić scored the country's first ever goal in the 62nd minute. On 31 May 2007, Montenegro was admitted as FIFA's 208th member.

Montenegro's first coach was Serbia and Montenegro-born Zoran Filipović. Hailed by both players and press, his record was rather positive, with 23 matches played, eight victories, eight draws and seven defeats. Filipović, however, left the Balkan newcomers in January 2010 when his contract expired. During his time, Montenegro rose to 73rd position in the FIFA rankings.

Montenegro played at the 2007 Kirin Cup, but finished in last place behind Japan and Colombia, losing to both teams.

On 26 March 2008, Montenegro recorded one of its best played matches with a 3–1 win over Norway. At the same time, the nation recorded its highest scoring game.

First competitive matches

On 6 September 2008, Montenegro played its first ever World Cup qualifier, at Podgorica City Stadium, against Bulgaria in Podgorica. As expected, Bulgaria took an early lead in the 11th minute with a goal from Stiliyan Petrov. Mirko Vučinić scored in the 61st minute to make the game 1–1. Igor Burzanović took a penalty and made it 2–1 in the 82nd minute. As Montenegrin fans were about to celebrate a historical first competitive win, a last-minute equalizer from Blagoy Georgiev spoiled the party. In their next match on 10 September, they achieved another notable result when they held the Republic of Ireland to a 0–0 draw.

Another near-upset came in a narrow 2–1 loss against Italy. Despite Alberto Aquilani's early strike, Vučinić quickly equalized 11 minutes later. Aquilani then scored again ten minutes later. However, their second match against Italy in the two-game series ended 2–0 in favor of the world champions. And another disappointment came when the team could only draw 0–0 against Georgia and went on to draw 2–2 against Cyprus, having fought back after being two goals down. The fixture on 5 September 2009 was a shock when, after taking an early lead against Bulgaria in Sofia with Stevan Jovetić putting them 1–0 up, Bulgaria scored four goals in succession to win 4–1. Montenegro, then eliminated, drew their next game with Cyprus 1–1, who were also eliminated. Montenegro would finally register their first competitive win against Georgia, winning 2–1. They then managed a great performance to hold the Republic of Ireland to a 0–0 draw at Croke Park. They ultimately finished fifth in the group with nine points, just below Cyprus on goal differential. Though they failed to qualify for the World Cup, Montenegro had performed better than expected in their first competitive international matches. The next month, they reached one of their highest positions in the FIFA rankings, in 73rd place.

UEFA Euro 2012 qualification

During the UEFA Euro 2012 qualification, the team recorded further victories. At the beginning, in August 2010, the team defeated Wales in Podgorica winning 1–0 from a goal by Mirko Vučinić. A few days later, the team defeated Bulgaria in Sofia 1–0. The next month, the team defeated Switzerland 1–0 by taking the lead in the second half and then recorded a 0–0 draw in London against England. On 4 June 2011, Montenegro played against Bulgaria. Switzerland tied with England 2–2, with England narrowly avoiding defeat. Although Montenegro had a bright start, the Bulgarians were able to keep it 1–1. Radomir Đalović scored for Montenegro early in the second half, but Ivelin Popov scored minutes later, keeping Montenegro in second. Montenegro and England were at the time tied on points, but due to a larger goal difference, England remained ahead.

After that, Montenegro played against Wales in Cardiff. Montenegro were beaten 2–1 (Steve Morison and Aaron Ramsey for Wales, Stevan Jovetić for Montenegro), and appeared to have significantly damaged their chances of making the play-offs. After the match, Montenegro still was in second in group G, but Switzerland has closed the gap to only three points.
On June 2011 FIFA rankings, Montenegro was 16th on the world.

On 7 October, Montenegro played its seventh match in UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying against England in Podgorica. It was a rainy October night, but a very bright one for Montenegro. England started the match well, leading 0–2 in the 31st minute thanks to goals by Ashley Young and Darren Bent. A deflected volley by Elsad Zverotić in the 45th minute reduced the deficit to 1–2, and Montenegro were much brighter in the second half, creating a lot of chances. Their cause was greatly helped by the dismissal of Wayne Rooney after 73 minutes for kicking out at Miodrag Džudović. Montenegro equalised in stoppage time when a cross from Stefan Savić was headed in at the far post by Andrija Delibašić. The Montenegrins celebrated wildly, knowing following an announcement on the public address system that Wales were beating Switzerland 2–0, and thus that a point would be sufficient to guarantee second place in the group and a place in the play-offs. The game ended 2–2, whilst Wales won 2–0, securing a play-off position for Montenegro, a historic achievement putting the team two matches away from qualifying for Euro 2012.

In their last match in Euro 2012 qualifying, Montenegro lost 2–0 to Switzerland in Basel, though the outcome did not carry any implications, as Montenegro had already secured their place in the play-offs.

On 13 October, the draw for the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying play-offs was held in Kraków, Poland. As a result of the draw, Montenegro played against the Czech Republic, eventually losing 3–0 on aggregate and failing to qualify.

2014 FIFA World Cup qualification

Montenegro was in qualification Group H, along with England, Poland, Ukraine, Moldova and San Marino.

In their first match, Montenegro played against Poland in Podgorica. Jakub Błaszczykowski scored from a penalty kick for Poland in the fifth minute, but Montenegro came back with goals by Nikola Drinčić in the 26th minute and Mirko Vučinić in the first half's injury time following a corner kick. In the second half, Adrian Mierzejewski scored an equalizer for Poland in the 55th minute, the game's final goal in a 2–2 draw.

On 11 September, Montenegro played against San Marino in Seravalle. In a very one-sided match, Montenegro won 0–6, the biggest win for Montenegro since its formation. Montenegro then proceeded to beat Ukraine 0–1 away in Kiev, the sole goal scored by Dejan Damjanović. In their last match in 2012, Montenegro faced San Marino in Podgorica on 14 November, a comfortable 3–0 win.

Montenegro played their fifth qualifier match against Moldova in Chișinău on 22 March 2013, winning 0–1 through Mirko Vučinić's lone goal. After that, Montenegro returned to Podgorica to play the second ranked team in the group, England. The outcome was a 1–1 draw the goals coming from Wayne Rooney in the sixth minute and from Dejan Damjanović.

At the top of their World Cup qualifying group, Montenegro hosted Ukraine on 7 June 2013. They suffered their first defeat, losing 0–4. The match also saw Montenegro finish the match with nine men after Vladimir Volkov and Savo Pavićević were sent off. Their last four matches yielded just a single point, a 1–1 draw in Poland. Their 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign finished with a 2–5 home defeat to Moldova, finishing third in the group behind England and Ukraine.

UEFA Euro 2016 qualification

On 23 February in Nice, Montenegro was drawn for qualification in Group G alongside Russia, Sweden, Austria, Moldova and Liechtenstein. Started with win against Moldova (2:0), Montenegro disappointed with draw in Liechtenstein (0:0). After defeat in Austria (0:1) and draw with Sweden in Podgorica (1:1), chances for qualifying were much worse.
On 27 March 2015, Montenegro had a home match against Russia. The match was abandoned after 67 minutes due to crowd violence (during the match, the Russian Dmitri Kombarov was hit by an different object). The original score was 0–0 and Russia missed a penalty moment before the match was abandoned. Russian goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev was hit by a flare, causing a second 33-minute delay. After that abandoned game (UEFA registered it 3:0 for Russia), Montenegro lost their chances to qualify. At the end, Montenegrin national team finished as a four-placed team in a group.
Once 16th country on the world, at summer 2016 became 95th team on FIFA ranking-list.

FIFA rankings

Montenegro national football team is present on FIFA rankings since June 2007. Until now, best ranking of Montenegro was 16th place in the world (June 2011).
Below is a list of Montenegro position on FIFA ranking-list by every six months, with number of points.

Name

Under the official FIFA Trigramme, the team’s name is abbreviated as MNE, which is also the country's code. The team's nickname is "The Brave Falcons" (Montenegrin: Hrabri Sokoli).

Stadium

Home venue of Montenegro national team matches is Podgorica City Stadium (often named Stadion pod Goricom). Montenegrin team never played any single home match on some other stadium. Current capacity of stadium is 15,230 seats, but for international games there are about 13,000 free-seats, because most seats on the south stand are reserved for guest supporters.
With the full crowd at every important match, and the architecture of the stands which are only four meters away from the pitch-lines, games of Montenegrin national team are playing in the highly-electric atmosphere.

Camp FSCG

From 2008, Football Association of Montenegro owns one of most modern training grounds at Balkan peninsula. Built in 2007, the centre consists of 54000 sq meters. It is located on Ćemosvko polje, a plain at Podgorica outskirts between the settlements Stari Aerodrom and Konik. It consists on six pitches with stands and floodlights, and House of Football - a seat of Football Association of Montenegro.
Camp currently represents an important asset for the whole Montenegrin football system. Its' grounds are home to all Montenegrin national teams (men and women) and numerous teams from Podgorica. Fields meets the criteria for Montenegrin First League games and UEFA competitions for young players.

House of Football

House of Football (Kuća fudbala) is a seat of Football Association of Montenegro. Building is opened at 21 May 2016.
On 3,240 sq meters, building have modern facilities like reception, Museum, press hall, TV FSCG seat, administrative offices and meeting rooms.

FSCG training grounds

Behind the House of Football are two football pitches which belongs to FSCG. Both have stands with capacity of 1,000 seats and main fild have floodlights, too. Montenegro national football team use both stadiums as their training base before every single game.
Because it meets criteria for UEFA games, main field is often home to Montenegro women's national football team, Montenegro national under-19 football team and Montenegro national under-17 football team games. Except that, teams from First and Second Montenegrin League can always use main ground for their matches, which is especially crucial during the stormy days, when their own stadiums are in bad condition.

Kit

The team kit is currently produced by Italian company Legea. It is all-red with gold details to reflect the colours of the Montenegrin national flag. Before that, briefly the kit providers were daCapo (2007–2008).

Supporters

At competitive matches, the Montenegrin home ground Podgorica City Stadium is very often filled to capacity. The stadium is regarded as too small to meet the needs of the national team. Demand for the World Cup qualifier against Italy in 2009 was 30,000 tickets and 40,000 for the Euro 2012 qualifying match against England in 2011.

Montenegro's loudest and most loyal supporters are Ultra Crna Gora (Ultra Montenegro). They practice ultras way of support – standing up and singing for 90 minutes, no matter the result, both home and away. They occupy the north and south stands of Podgorica City Stadium. Choreography is usually performed at the beginning of the games. Ultra Crna Gora consists of many subgroups, mostly named after Podgorica's neighborhoods and Montenegrin towns in other parts of the country.

On 7 October 2011, in a match against England, at the sound of final whistle, hundreds of Montenegrin supporters ran onto the pitch to celebrate with the players.

Players

In international football, players can normally only play for one national team once they play in all or part of any match recognised as a full international by FIFA. However, an exception is made in cases where one or more newly independent states are created out of a former state. Based on current FIFA rules, a player will be eligible to play for Montenegro, even if he had previously represented Serbia and Montenegro or any other country, if at least one of the following statements applies:

Due to mixed ancestries, it is likely that a high percentage of the players eligible to play for Montenegro will also remain eligible to play for Serbia, and vice versa. However, once they have played for either Serbia or Montenegro in any competitive fixture, they are no longer eligible to play for any other nation.

Current squad

The following squad was called up for the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier matches against  Poland on 26 March.
Caps and goals as of 11 November 2016 after the game against Armenia.

Recent call-ups

The following players have been called on the last 12 months.

Player records

Player/coach records are accurate as of 14 November 2016. Players in bold are still active at international level.

Most capped players

C - captain (starting as captain); Q - qualifiers; F - friendlies; G - goals
ž Updated: November 14, 2016

Top goalscorers

Q - qualifiers; F - Friendlies; First - First goal; Last - Last goal
Updated: November 14, 2016

Competition History

Montenegro have participated in four qualification rounds for big tournaments so far. On every occasion, Montenegro failed to qualify, and biggest success was placement to playoffs for UEFA Euro 2012.
Montenegro first tried to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, but they finished fifth in their group. Montenegro had more success in UEFA Euro 2012 qualifications, when they finished 2nd in their group, and qualified for the play-offs. They failed to qualify for the main event, because they lost their two leg match against Czech Republic.
At qualifiers for 2014 FIFA World Cup, Montenegro won the third place in the group, and two years after, in the qualifying group for UEFA Euro 2016 finished fourth.
Below is a list of games of Montenegro national football team by every competition on which they participated.

Updated: November 14, 2016

Recent results and fixtures

Since 2007, Montenegrin national team is playing a dozens of qualifying and friendly matches by every year. There is a List of official matches of the Montenegro national football team. Below is a score of Montenegrin national team by every opponent country.