Ludogorets' top scorer Petar Stanic scored the only goal for his homeland Serbia in the 1:5 defeat by Mexico in a friendly match played at the "Nemesio Díaz" stadium in the Mexican city of Toluca.
This was the last test for the "Aztecs" before starting their participation in the 2026 World Cup, where they are co-hosts along with the USA and Canada. The Mexicans are in the same group as South Africa, South Korea and the Czech Republic, and it is they who will open the tournament with a duel against the country from the Black Continent next week on June 11 (Thursday) at 22:00 Bulgarian time at the "Estadio Banorte" in the capital Mexico City.
Stanič, however, managed to open the scoring in the 19th minute, giving great hopes that the Serbs are starting their path to regaining their self-confidence after the failure in the qualifiers for the world finals in North America. However, this was thwarted, as our western neighbors sabotaged themselves and allowed a painful turnaround by the end of the first half.
First, in the 34th minute, Johan Vazquez equalized for the "Aztecs", and the complete turnaround came after an own goal by Stefan Bukinac in added time of the first half.
After the break, Raul Jimenez gave the hosts a two-goal lead, and the intrigue was finally killed after Adem Avdic scored another own goal for the Balkans.
Right at the end of regular time, in the 90th minute, Luis Chavez scored the final fifth goal into the Serbian goal.
By the way, that night, Mexico's rival from the group, the Czech Republic, also played its last test before the World Cup.
The Europeans recorded a convincing success with 3:1 against Guatemala, with this test being played in another of the host countries of the World Cup finals - the USA.
The match, which was played at the "Sports Illustrated Stadium" in Harrison, Idaho, the Czech team started the match better and took the lead after 11 minutes thanks to Patrick Schick. However, the symbolic guests managed to equalize shortly before the break after William Fajardo scored in the 40th minute. In the second half, however, the Europeans completely dominated and struck a quick double blow, with Tomas Hori returning the advantage for their team in the 72nd minute, and Denis Wyszynski shaping the final score in the 79th minute.
In this way, the Czechs showed that they are fully ready for the battles against the tough rivals of the World Cup and are already counting the days until their first match in the finals. It will be in exactly one week on June 12th (Friday) at 5:00 am Bulgarian time against South Korea.