Much-travelled Dutchman Dick Advocaat will make his debut on the Serbia bench on Sunday in Belgrade in a friendly against Euro 2016 hosts France.

The 66-year-old has been tasked with bringing back the glory days to a team -- that he describes as "talented and full of qualities" -- that failed to qualify for the last World Cup and has not made it to a European Championship finals since 2000.

"I discovered a team that knows how to play but doesn't know how to win and this has to change," Advocaat said when taking over the Balkan country's helm in July.

The move surprised many both in Serbia and abroad as Advocaat replaced interim coach Ljubinko Drulovic, who took over after Sinisa Mihajlovic resigned following Serbia's failure to qualify for the World Cup.

"I did not come for the money. I have already earned enough of it. I wanted to work with a young team which has potential," Advocaat said.

The Dutchman said his first task would be to guide the team to the Euro 2016 finals from Group I, containing Portugal, Denmark, Armenia and Albania.

"Simply, we have to qualify. There is no other option. We have the required quality and we're going to show it," the new Serbia coach said.

"There will be no excuses, I have a vision," assured Advocaat who agreed in his contract to be sacked if the team fails to qualify.

A strict disciplinarian, Advocaat plans to insist on ball possession with a lot of movement.

His squad includes a number of players from major European clubs. Defender Branislav Ivanovic and midfielder Nemanja Matic are key players at Chelsea, Aleksandar Kolarov and Matija Nastasic play for Manchester City while striker Lazar Markovic has signed with Liverpool.

Advocaat coached Dutch side AZ Alkmaar last season.

His coaching career includes stints with his native Netherlands, Belgium, South Korea and Russia. He also won the 1999 domestic treble with Scottish side Rangers as well as the 2007 Russian Premier League and the 2008 UEFA Cup crown with Zenit Saint Petersburg.

Serbia will start their Euro qualifiers on October 11 against Armenia in Yerevan.

The top two in the group qualify automatically for the finals while the third place team will likely need a play-off to progress.