Nickname: White Eagles
Manager: Radi Antic
Previous World Cup appearances: (Yugoslavia, 11, Serbia & Montenegro, one)
Best finish: (As Yugoslavia: fourth place in 1930 & 1962, As Serbia & Montenegro, first round, 2006)
Key players:
Milan Jovanovic
Nemanja Vidic
Branislav Ivanovic
Nikola Zigic
At the 2006 World Cup, under their former guise of Serbia & Montenegro, this former Yugoslav nation endured a torrid tournament as three straight group stage defeats sent them packing.
Hardly surprising when you consider they were grouped with the Netherlands, Argentina and Ivory Coast, but it was still a rough ride for Serbia in Germany four years ago.
But having topped their qualifying group for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, forcing 1998 World Champions France into second place and a play-off, Serbia may have already gone some way to banishing those painful memories.
They will not lack managerial experience. Radomir Antic has been there, seen it and done it at every level of football. He has managed both Barcelona and Real Madrid, Fenerbahce, Real Zaragoza, Atletico Madrid and Luton Town, to name six of the amazingly long list.
Antic was drafted in at the last minute, just two weeks before Serbia's qualifying campaign kicked off against Faroe Islands, in the wake of Miroslav Dukic's departure.
Antic set to work immediately, drafting in the likes of Milos Krasic of CSKA Moscow, and also calling up Zoran Tosic, who would soon be at Manchester United with countryman Nemanja Vidic.
Ever since the Croatia team inspired by Davor Suker and Robert Prosinecki made the semi-finals at the 1998 World Cup, states from the former Yugoslavia have loomed large in international football, and the 2010 tournament is set to be no different.
Much like their Balkan counterparts Croatia, they are not short of creative talent in attack and midfield.
Free-kick specialist Milan Jovanovic topped the scoring charts in qualifying with five, while towering frontman Nikola Zigic of Valencia and Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic both scored three.
A £20million signing for Valencia in 2007, Zigic failed to make much of an impression at the Mestalla and was loaned back to former club Racing Santander - but his aerial threat will be a worry for the meanest defences at this World Cup.
In defence, Vidic is world-famous, operating for Manchester United alongside Rio Ferdinand.
His old-fashioned style of muscular defending and goalscoring threat is one of Serbia's major assets: although he will almost certainly be hoping not to come up against Spanish striker Fernando Torres, who has tormented him in recent encounters between Manchester United and Liverpool.
