Soccer

Serbia fight back in Georgia to overtake Ireland

Serbia have gone top of Ireland's 2018 World Cup qualification group after fighting back to win 3...

Off The Ball

Soccer

Off The Ball

Serbia have gone top of Ireland's 2018 World Cup qualification group after fighting back to win 3-1 in Georgia.

Southampton attacking midfielder Dusan Tadic was among the goalscorers as the Serbs took all three points to move onto 11 points overall, one clear of Ireland.

But Martin O'Neill's side do have a game in hand against Wales on Friday night in which to try and retake the top spot in the group.

Serbia found themselves 1-0 down to the Georgians early on in Tbilisi as striker Nika Kacharava made the most of an awful back pass towards the goalkeeper by Manchester City left back Aleksandar Kolarov.

Kacharava got to the short miscued ball first to poke in.

However, Serbia got a crucial goal just before half time as Tadic converted a penalty to leave the scores at 1-1 at the break.

Serbia's Tadic has converted a penalty to level things up at 1-1 for Serbia in Georgia #IRLWAL #COYBIG

— Newstalk Sport (@NewstalkSport) March 24, 2017

And 20 minutes into the second half, Serbia hit the front as Newcastle United target man Aleksandar Mitrovic curled in an excellent goal from range to make it 2-1.

Serbia put the game to bed when Eintracht Frankfurt's Mijat GaÄ‡inoviÄ‡ made it 3-1 with five minutes to go.

It is Serbia's third win of the qualifiers so far and they remain unbeaten after drawing their other two fixtures 2-2 against Ireland in September in Belgrade and then 1-1 in Cardiff against Wales in November.