The Palace midfielder was an unused substitute in Moscow as goals from Paulinho and Thiago Silva won the game for the five-time champions, helping them to advance alongside Switzerland from Group E.
Milivojevic’s team finished third ahead of Costa Rica, who they beat in their first game to give them hope of reaching the last-16. However, Serbia return home still aggrieved that they weren’t handed a blatant penalty against Switzerland when they were already 1-0 ahead, in a game that saw a late Xherdan Shaqiri strike complete a 2-1 comeback for the Swiss.
That meant that Serbia had to beat Brazil to ensure progress, or get a draw and hope that Switzerland slipped up. However, it wasn’t to be and the Serbs’ interests ended in the Russian capital.
Milivojevic played the full 90 minutes against Costa Rica and then won his 30th cap for his country against Switzerland, when he was replaced in the 81st minute before Shaqiri struck.