Vlahovic comes under criticism after Serbia 0-1 Albania loss

Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic has come under fire in his native Serbia after the national team’s 1-0 defeat by Albania, which led to the resignation of head coach Dragan Stojkovic. 

Serbia fell to a 1-0 defeat to Albania in Group K of World Cup qualifying on Saturday evening, which leaves them in third place in the standings, four points behind Albania with a game in hand. As things stand, qualification to the 2026 World Cup is out of Serbia’s hands. 

The defeat to Albania on Saturday led to the immediate resignation of head coach Stojkovic, but he is not the only one who has come under criticism in Serbia. 

Of the players on the pitch, supporters have been left disappointed by the underwhelming returns of centre-forwards Vlahovic and Aleksandar Mitrovic. As per Tuttosport, the Serbian centre-forwards have struggled to find chemistry or balance despite regularly playing together in some form of a 3-5-2. 

Vlahovic, who has been on encouraging form with Juventus at the start of the 2025-26 season, despite a troubling 2024-25 campaign, has only scored once for Serbia in their World Cup qualifying campaign so far: In a 1-0 win over Latvia at the beginning of September. 

Mitrovic has scored three times, albeit all coming in the same game: A 3-0 win over Moldova last month. Serbia have failed to score in all of their other three World Cup qualifiers (twice against Albania and once against England).