Saturday 17th June, 17:00
Live on Sky Sports
Portugal 1.86 are expected to provide the main opposition to pre-tournament favourites Spain in Group B and the Esperanças' would dearly love to follow in the footsteps of the senior side that were crowned as European champions last summer.
Rui Jorge's side were runners-up in this competition two years ago when losing out to Sweden on penalties and the current crop are well fancied to go far in the tournament once more. There's quality throughout the squad with options available in almost every position.
Predicting the starting XI is tricky given Rui Jorge made so many changes during qualifying and in the warm-up fixtures but captain Bruno Fernandes will start following another impressive campaign in Serie A with Sampdoria whilst Renato Sanches should join a midfield that also includes Ruben Neves in the shielding position in front of the back-four.
Manchester United's Joel Pereira is one of three keepers all hoping to get the nod and in attack there's equally fierce competition for places with RB Leipzig's new £11m man Bruma playing from the flanks as the team's major creative force and PS striker Goncalo Guedes providing the cutting edge.
Serbia 4.40 will be determined to make an impact in Poland after falling at the group stage last time around but Nenad Lalatovic's men suffered an injury blow when star midfield man Sergej Milinkovic-Savic was ruled out of the competition.
Liverpool's Marko Grujic may now be given a more advanced role in a three-man midfield and the ex-Red Star Belgrade youngster dubbed 'the new Nemanja Matic' will be eager to impress after an injury interrupted campaign at Anfield.
Andrija Zivkovic is the side's outstanding talent from wide and headlined in Serbia's Under-20 World Cup win in 2015 and also became the youngest player to win a senior Serbia cap nearly four years ago at the age of 17. He joined Benfica last season and with opportunities limited, will want to inspire.
Former Tottenham youngster Milos Veljkovic will start at the back for the Young Eagles but look out for Serbian top-flight goalscorer Uros Djurdjevic in attack. The 23-year-old plundered 24 goals in 29 appearances from Partizan Belgrade and is back on the radar of teams across the continent having previously failed to make the grade with Vitesse and Palermo in recent seasons.
These two are at their strongest when going forward; Portugal have been silenced only once since their U21 Euro 2015 final defeat and although they've kept nine clean sheets in 12 competitive outings, the Esperanças' have only shutout one of their past six opponents.
Serbia have conceded in seven of their most recent nine meaningful matches and with four of their last six rewarding Both Teams To Score backers, it makes sense to support a repeat on Saturday at odds of 1.70.
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