Cape Verde vs Serbia Prediction: Honours even in Lisbon?

Two teams in contrasting moods clash at the Estádio do Restelo on Sunday afternoon (4pm), as World Cup-bound Cape Verde take on struggling Serbia. The Blue Sharks are preparing to feature at FIFA’s most prestigious tournament for the first time in their history, following a hugely impressive qualification campaign.

Despite failing to win either of their recent friendlies against Chile and Finland, Pedro Leitão Brito’s men are in confident spirits ahead of their journey across the Atlantic. Meanwhile, Serbia are still licking their wounds after failing to advance to this summer’s tournament.

A wretched run of results saw the Serbians finish third in their group, one point behind Balkan neighbours Albania and a mile off runaway leaders England. As a consequence of their poor form, head coach Dragan Stojković was dismissed and replaced by former Reading boss Veljko Paunović.  Although we expect a tight contest between two fairly evenly-matched sides, outcomes of friendlies are notoriously difficult to predict. Below you can find my Cape Verde vs Serbia Predictions. 

Team News

Despite only playing 28 minutes of football throughout the 2025/26 campaign, Logan Costa has been drafted into the Cape Verde squad. The Villarreal defender ruptured his cruciate ligament last July, but made his long-awaited return to action earlier this month.

Followers of Irish football will know all about Roberto Lopes, who is a key contributor for title-chasing Shamrock Rovers. Lopes started nine of the Cape Verdeans’ 10 World Cup qualifiers, so he’ll be expecting to feature in some capacity against Serbia.

With no competitive fixtures on the horizon, Veljko Paunović is likely to field a strong line-up. The likes of Predrag Rajković, Sergej Milinković-Savić, and Nikola Milenković could all be involved, although Sunday’s contest also provides an opportunity to blood in some young talent.

This may result in some game time for Millwall’s Mihailo Ivanović, who receives his first call-up since the autumn of 2024.

Football Odds

Cape Verde vs Serbia Odds

Cape Verde are 15/8 to win this game, Serbia are 5/4 and a draw is 12/5.

Draw and BTTS @ 10/3

Having conceded more goals than they scored during a World Cup qualifying campaign that only garnered four victories, Serbia are currently there for the taking. The Eagles were easily swept aside by Spain in their opening March friendly, but did recover to narrowly defeat Saudi Arabia later that month.

Conversely, Cape Verde only lost once en route to North America. This was admittedly a 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Cameroon, but their overall defensive record was extremely impressive. The Islanders conceded just nine goals in total, keeping a staggering seven clean sheets in the process.

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