• Dragan Stojkovic recalls dazzling at Italia ‘90

• He raves about Aleksandar Mitrovic and “extraordinary” Dusan Vlahovic

• The Serbia coach wants to make a football-mad nation proud

After a remarkable playing career during which he earned 80 caps for Yugoslavia and competed at two FIFA World Cup™ tournaments, Dragan Stojkovic is currently preparing to coach Serbia on football’s greatest stage for the very first time. In charge of a highly-talented squad – particularly in attack – that qualified for Qatar 2022 by pulling off a surprise victory over group favourites Portugal, Stojkovic explained to FIFA that, with just a few weeks to go before the big kick-off, he sees no reason to put any restrictions on what his players might achieve. Once their main aim of advancing from their pool has been achieved, the sky is the limit.

Dragan Stojkovic: I’m more the kind of coach who concentrates on his own team and matches. Obviously we have a lot of respect for our opponents, but we want to play our own game.

We’d ended up in a difficult group, and Portugal were favourites to win it. My team played well in all our matches. We knew that the game against Portugal in Lisbon would be a bit like a final, and that’s exactly how it turned out. We showed that we deserved to qualify. Our 2-1 victory was merited.

Mitrovic is a vital player for our national team. He’s a top forward, and a very serious and professional athlete who gives his all every single match. All the goals he scored during the qualifying campaign were brilliant, but the one against Portugal in the last minute will remain engraved in our memories. He’s got abilities that would make anyone sit up and take notice. Any coach worth his salt would want him in his team.

For a good few years now, Vlahovic has demonstrated what an extraordinary player he is, and it was no surprise when Juventus, one of Italy’s greatest clubs, signed him. He’s young yet very mature; he gives his heart and soul to football, and that always pays off. He puts in a huge amount of work on behalf of his club, and he’s certainly no slouch with the national team either. As for Tadic, he’s everything you want in a captain: an immense talent who’s seen it all in football. Jovic was on Real Madrid’s books, and even though he didn’t get a chance to express himself fully, he certainly has the necessary skills to play at this level.

Right from the start of the qualifiers, we focused on our own game. My goal was to win matches, of course, but I also wanted to do so in style. We were keen to win by playing good football – modern, fast, attacking football. That’s what fans expect when they come to the stadium. And that objective enabled us to find a nice balance between positive results and stylish play. That’s what helped us to qualify.

Considering I had a very small number of training sessions and had to find my feet quickly, it was a pretty big challenge, yes. I have to thank my team, who put their trust in me straight away. We went into each match full of optimism and everything turned out wonderfully.

That World Cup is definitely one of the greatest highlights of my career. I scored twice against Spain, who had a gifted team at the time. I’ll never forget Italy 1990. Those were two of my finest goals, and I’m so proud to have had the chance to show my talent and footballing qualities at such an important event.

I’m not the kind of person who lets the pressure get to them prior to matches – I like to stay calm. That was my mindset when I was a player and that’s what I try to convey to my players. I urge them to try to not let pressure overwhelm them, because that can be counter-productive. There’s also positive pressure, which encourages you to give 100 per cent during the match, but you shouldn’t pay any attention to negative pressure.

Guiding your team to this type of competition is essential for any coach. It’s a great honour and privilege, but I also feel a sense of responsibility: as a player, you represent your club and yourself, but as a coach, you represent an entire nation. It’s a notable difference, but I don’t have any problem with it as it’s inevitable, really.

Football has always been a major sport in Serbia. People love it. And of course with that sometimes come unrealistic expectations, such as consistently predicting that we’ll win the World Cup. But it’s not as easy as that to lift the trophy, especially when you’re a little country with a lot of infrastructure problems and you struggle to compete with the big European nations. Qualifying for the tournament therefore constitutes a remarkable success for us, really, one which encourages us to keep up with our efforts to build a better future. Our win in Portugal led to great celebrations back home – our people deserve those moments of happiness.

That’s one of our aims. The fact we’re among the 32 best teams in the world shows that we’re a quality side, and that we’re not there by chance. We’re not going to Qatar to sightsee, but instead to try to achieve something we can be proud of. Our main objective is to get to the last 16, even though it’s not going to be straightforward. We’re capable of it, though, and we’re going to do all we can to achieve it.

Mitrovic: We’re sure Serbia can achieve some really spectacular results Milinkovic-Savic: The Serbia players know each other like the back of our hands Serbia: Five players to watch Stojkovic's Serbia set to entertain

Match highlights Yugoslavia 4-1 United Arab Emirates | Italy 1990 Spain 1-2 Yugoslavia | Italy 1990 Yugoslavia 0-0 Argentina (2-3 PSO) | Italy 1990 Germany 0-1 Serbia | South Africa 2010 Costa Rica 0-1 Serbia | South Africa 2010 Search here for all match highlights Other videos Predrag Mijatovic at 18 Dreams | The Official Film of the 2018 FIFA World Cup™