Serbia and Montenegro coach Ilija Petkovic appeared happy with his team being seeded in one of the most difficult groups of next summer's World Cup Football tournament. Petkovic stressed the difficulties faced by the Serbia and Montenegro soccer team during the World Cup 2006 Qualifying stages and the draw was indifferent to him, and also the internal situation in his country.

"I have emphasised many times that the most important thing is that we are in Germany. My first impression is that our group is the hardest, but we had the hardest group in qualification as well. I was optimistic then, and I am optimistic now. We are a small country, we are poor and we are in transition, but in the qualifiers we fought with big countries like Spain and Belgium. We fought with our hearts, with knowledge and with a desire to prove people wrong. We are not afraid of anything or anyone."

After suffering from UN sponsored sanctions and the US-led wars on it's soil, little was left from the former Yugoslavia. Out of the entire country, only Serbia and Montenegro are considered as the remains of Yugoslavia and in February 2003 Serbia and Montenegro became an independent entity. The qualification for the 2006 World Cup has created an atmosphere of pride for the locals, after many years of war.

Petkovic replaced Dejan Savicevic who resigned as the national team's coach due to the very poor performances early in the qualifiers. He was in the 1974 Yugoslavia World Cup Squad. The first game of Serbia and Montenegro with Petkovic on the bench brought a 1-0 victory over Wales, but this match was a mere indication for the internal situation in the country. The game had to be postponed for 5 months, following the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.

In March 2003, Serbia and Montenegro Football Federation president Branko Bulatovic was found dead by Petkovic on the steps of the federation's offices, after he had been shot. "I will never forget that. It was a tragedy and we were all affected. I feared the football balloon would burst. He had arranged the schedule of fixtures for the World Cup qualifiers, so I wanted to reach Germany for his memory."

"Our mentality is like this: we are small nation but we can be great out of our stubborn spirit." It's worth noting that Petkovic can not even take his dog out in the streets of Belgrade, fearing for the worse.

The team has had an excellent performance in the Qualifying stage, managing to concede only one goal in 10 matches! Instead of the offensive systems played by the former Yugoslavian team, Petkovic has done a great job in the defence, and his directions are perfectly adopted by Mladen Krstajic, Nemanja Vidic and Goran Gavrancic.

Petkovic flamed controversy amongst Serbia and Montenegro fans with his decision to leave Mateja Kezman out of the squad and included Nikola Zigic. However Kezman scored some crucial goals against Spain and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In the 1992 World Cup, the Yugoslavian team had qualified for the World Cup, but had to be expelled from the tournament as they were in a state of war. Yugoslavia was then replaced by Denmark. "This time we are not sending any substitutes. We are going ourselves," Petkovic said.

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