Finland reached Riga by winning their opening three games in Tampere before losses to Lithuania and Germany saw them finish third in Group B.
The Wolfpack could consider themselves unfortunate to be facing the current Olympic silver medallists in the first knockout round; Serbia won their first four matches before losing the Group A decider to Turkey.
But in the early stages, it was Finland who resembled the pre-tournament favourites - after Nikola Jovic scored the first point of the match, the Finns went on an 11-0 run, driven on by two three-pointers from Mikael Jantunen, before Miro Little also scored from beyond the arc for a 16-5 lead.
Lauri Markkanen equalled that 11-point advantage when he not only scored a three of his own but drew the foul and added the extra, for 20-9 with just over five minutes gone.
However, that was enough time for Serbia to rally - Aleksa Avramovic joined the three-pointers club and Nikola Jokic was too strong in the paint, as the Balkan side outscored Finland 15-8 in the latter stages of the first quarter to leave the score 28-24 to Lassi Tuovi's side.
Back-to-back layups from Ognjen Dobric and another from the Denver Nuggets' Jokic saw Serbia start the second quarter as they finished the first, and that 6-0 run saw them take the lead for the first time since the opening minute.
The lead changed hands a further eight times in a tense quarter which saw Jokic continue to rack up points while teenager Miikka Muurinen was dunking at the other end.
But an 8-0 run late on saw Serbia finally build some momentum in the final two minutes, going six points clear before two free throws from Markkanen made the half-time score 48-44 to the Serbians.
The lead was back up to six shortly after the restart, only for Finland to put together a 7-0 run with Little, Jantunen and Markkanen all involved again to but the Nordic men up by one.
Svetislav Pesic's men briefly regained the lead before threes from Elias Valtonen and Sasu Salin put Finland five points clear though the didn't extend it, they didn't fall behind again in the quarter which ended 68-66 and with an upset very much on the cards.
Serbia turned to Jokic as the final 10 minutes got underway, but for every two he hit, Muurinen hit back with three for Finland. The match was on a knife edge, before another vital Valtonen shot from downtown put the Finns 82-78 in front with two minutes to play.
The world and Olympic runners-up took a timeout and came back out fighting with three points from Jovic, but another five unanswered from Valtonen before Markkanen added free throws put Finland in dreamland inside the final minute.
Jokic did all he could to turn it around, but Finland held on for a dramatic and remarkable 92-86 win that takes them into the Quarter-finals for the second EuroBasket in a row.
The three-time NBA MVP scored 33 points for the Orlovi, four more than the Utah Jazz's Markkanen hit for Finland. Both players, plus Little, recorded eight rebounds each, while Little also led the game in assists, with six.
Tomorrow, Finland will discover if it will be France or Georgia who they take on in the last eight on Wednesday.
Check out all the stats and scores from EuroBasket 2025 on Flashscore.