Serbia coach Vlada Vukoicic admits it will be difficult for his side to emulate their European U20 title triumph when the FIBA U20 European Championship tips off later this week.

Since that win in Turkey in 2006, when the team was joined with Montenegro, all but five of the squad have become ineligible through age or nationality.

And with the U19 World Championships further shrinking his pool of available players, Vukoicic is down to the bare bones.

He said: "People easily mix together different stories, by saying 'this is the same team that won gold in Izmir in 2006'.

"But, it's not the case. For this occasion we don't have players born in 1986, and we don't have players from Montenegro any more either.

"It's hard to say what will be our achievement there. We worked well, despite problems with injuries. But, we've done good things, still.

"Our last check in Bursa went well. We've defeated Russia, Turkey and Croatia, then lost against Germans and Turks, but we are satisfied.

"I hope we'll be satisfied after the European Championship, also."