With around 77 minutes on the clock during Brazil’s World Cup clash with Serbia on Thursday evening, Nikola Milenkovic made what felt like his umpteenth perfectly-timed interception of the game and celebrated with a fist pump.
Serbia, of course, were already 2-0 down at that point; two goals, two very different goals from Tottennham’s Richarlison ensuring the pre-tournament favourites got off to the perfect start. But two could have become three, maybe even four, if it wasn’t for Serbia’s largely resilient backline.
A backline marshalled with dogged determination by Fiorentina’s 6ft 5ins man mountain. No player in the entire group stages completed more than his eight tackles after matchday one. There was also four interceptions, and three clearances to add to Milenkovic’s already impressive collection (WhoScored).
Moments like the one where he shrugged off substitute Gabriel Jesus, expertly shepherding a rolling ball back to his goalkeeper under serious and sustained pressure from the Arsenal forward, don’t even show up in the numbers.
On this evidence, Milenkovic standing defiantly against a yellow-and-blue tide, you can see why West Ham United were so disappointed to see a potential £14 million deal for one of their most long-running transfer targets fall through during the summer of 2021.
Former West Ham United target Nikola Milenkovic shines as Serbia lose to Brazil
“It was really done; Nikola Milenkovic to West Ham,” Fabrizio Romano explained at the time. “They decided to sign Kurt Zouma weeks later, but they were more than close to Nikola Milenkovic.
“It was at the final stages. West Ham wanted him. They had an agreement in place with Fiorentina. It was about the contract of the player and final details. It was about personal terms with Milenkovic and with his agent, and then the deal collapsed.”
At least, with Zouma playing some of the best football of his Premier League career in claret-and-blue, David Moyes still got his mitts on one hell of a consolation prize. But, still, one of the finest defensive performances of the Qatar World Cup so far from West Ham’s one-that-got-away still felt like a classic case of ‘look at what you could’ve won’.
“We only want to win,” Milenkovic tells Republika; looking ahead with optimism to the remaining Group H fixtures with Cameroon and Serbia.
“With that attitude, we have to go in and show that we believe. And that we want to go through the group. And I’m sure that all 26 players will do their best to do it.”
If the rest of Serbia’s players can match Milenkovic’s standards in the remainder of the group, the last-16 beckons.
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