Petar Stanić put Serbia in front in Toluca with a calm finish in the 19th minute, turning a loose ball into a 1-0 lead against Mexico. The goal came after he worked through two Mexico players in the middle and was set up by Lučić from the left wing.
The early breakthrough mattered because Serbia came to Mexico trying to steady itself after a 3-0 loss to Cape Verde Islands, and it arrived short-handed as Jovan Milošević, Andrija Živković and Strahinja Pavlović stayed in Europe. Before kickoff, Veljko Paunović said the team needed to improve the impression left by that result, and he pointed to the first training session in Mexico as proof that the squad was also dealing with the high altitude.
Serbia still had to survive the opening minutes before Stanić scored. Filip Stanković made three saves in the first 10 minutes, and Dragojević was booked in the 16th minute for pulling a shirt, a stretch that showed how quickly the match could tilt. Paunović also had a scuffle with Mexicans over the taking of one ball, a sharp moment in a game that already carried more edge than a routine friendly.
The match in Toluca was more than a tune-up for Serbia. It was played in the country that will host the World Cup, and it offered Paunović another return to Mexican football, where he previously coached Chivas from Guadalajara and Tigres. The game was shown on RTS 2 and Arena 1 Premium, giving Serbian viewers a live look at a team trying to answer its own doubts under unfamiliar conditions.
What mattered from here was whether Serbia could turn Stanić’s goal into a result. If it did, the 19th-minute strike would read as the start of a recovery after Cape Verde Islands; if it did not, it would be remembered as a brief lift that left the larger questions untouched.
