Serbian football society was worried. However, the events on Monday restored the confidence for the Serbians that their national team, called "Eagles," is still alive and ready to fly, wrote lrytas.lt.
Serbian media, fans, and players' mood was lifted by an easy victory against the Lithuanian national team 4:1 in the European Championship qualifying match held in Belgrade.
For the Serbians who participated in last year's World Cup, this victory was as necessary as air – just three days before, the "Eagles" were defeated in Ukraine with an even worse result of 0:5.
"Heads held high," – after the victory against Lithuanians, Serbia's sports newspaper "Sportski žurnal" rejoiced, printing a picture of their country's football players celebrating on the front page the following day.
The echoes of Friday's failure were also felt in the headlines of other publications.
"Mitrović and Jović struck early. Serbia unleashed anger on Lithuanians," wrote the newspaper "Večernje Novosti."
"Catastrophe forgotten," declared the main headline on the website sportske.net. "Eagles" soar again," the newspaper "Kurir" did not conceal the improved mood.
On the other hand, Serbian media tried to soothe those who may have celebrated too energetically because the opponents defeated on Monday were not strong.
"Eagles" tore apart weak Lithuanians," stated the newspaper "Telegraf."
"Serbia returned to the 4-4-2 formation and easily defeated the group's underdogs," the first sentence of the article in "Sportski žurnal" read.
"Serbia only needed 15 minutes to crush Lithuania," was the headline on the B92 TV website.
"Only the players and fans themselves knew how they felt after the crushing defeat in Ukraine. And only Lithuanian football players knew what it means to play against such a determined team.
Recovered from the knockout experienced in Lviv, Mladen Krstajić and his team immediately faced the opponents they had beaten twice last autumn.
Immediately, the Serbian national team achieved a significant and deserved victory of 4:1 and showed that they are still alive. The team again reminded of the successful journey in the World Cup qualifiers and the Nations League. "Eagles" spread their wings again," summarized "Večernje Novosti" on Monday's events.
Rolandas V. Eidvilas, lrytas.lt
