Aleksandar Mitrović was on target again on Friday night, but could not prevent Serbia’s elimination from the World Cup.
His side knew they needed to beat Switzerland in order to progress from the Group Stages, but fell to a 3-2 defeat in an entertaining contest.
After going behind to Xherdan Shaqiri’s deflected opener, Serbia responded brilliantly and equalised through a textbook Mitrović header.
The Fulham number nine ran across his man to glance his effort back across goal and inside the far post to level things up.
Serbia’s decision to play two up top for the first time then paid dividends as a smart finish from Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic put them in front, only for Breel Embolo to tap at the other end just before half-time.
The decisive goal then came shortly after the restart, with Remo Freuler finishing off a clever Switzerland passage of play.
Serbia needed two now to stand any chance of progression, but if anything it was Switzerland who had the better chances to extend their lead.
It means Mitrović will be heading back to SW6 sooner than he would have liked but, as always, he didn’t let anyone down, registering a fine return of two goals from his three matches out in Qatar.
In Group H, Portugal were already through, which is just as well as they were beaten 2-1 by South Korea.
An early Ricardo Horta goal suggested it could be a routine 90 minutes for the Portuguese, but they were soon pegged back by Kim Young-Gwon.
For the third time this tournament, João Palhinha was introduced as a second half substitute, replacing Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Matheus Nunes.
And it was Nunes’ club teammate Hwang Hee-Chan who had the final say, snatching a dramatic winner in stoppage time to send South Korea through to the last-16 alongside Portugal.
It was a tense wait at full-time to see if the 2-1 victory was enough, and it eventually transpired that they had qualified at the expense of Uruguay courtesy of goals scored.
