Serbia have blown Ghana’s World Cup group wide open after the Europeans beat surprisingly beat Germany 1-0 in Group D of the tournament in South Africa on Friday.
After overrunning Australia in their opening match, Joachim Löw’s Germany World Cup efforts were thrown into disarray as they were defeated by Serbia at Port Elizabeth Stadium.
With the result, Group D sees Germany, Serbia and Ghana in a three-way deadlock, with the later playing Australia on Saturday.
Should the African’s win, Joachim Löw’s side will be in a virtual must win situation in next weeks final group stage contexts, lest they do not qualify for the round of sixteen.
Serbia, coming off their opening loss to Ghana, came into the context with something to prove and from the opening whistle they proved they were going to play with a bolder vision.
The opening stages saw both sides willing to press forward but as an indicator of things to come Germany was unable to convert on a series of quality chances.
However, in the most telling aspect of the match, following the first of many errant efforts by Lukas Podolski, match day referee Alberto Undiano took the contest out of the player’s hands and began handing out yellow-cards as quick as he could pull them from his back pocket.
The shameful grade of refereeing saw Miroslav Klose handed a yellow for a foul worthy Branislav Ivanovi? challenge at the thirteenth minute, in a decision that would be costly for the Bayern München sniper.
The tables turned briefly in Serbia’s favour with CSKA Moskva’s Miloš Krasi? tearing apart the right flank of the German defenders but otherwise the match was a box to box affair until eight minutes before the half when Mr. Undiano changed the proceedings with a highly dubious call.
Trailing Dejan Stankovi?, Miroslav Klose clipped the Internazionale midfielder ever so slightly and in the rashest of decisions, the striker was sent off with his second yellow card.
Germany looked in shock and within a minute Serbia lodged the eventual winner as Miloš Krasi? surged towards the right byline, where he sent a cross to the back post that Nikola Žigi? nodded back for Standard Liège’s Milan Jovanovi? to send into the net from point blank range.
Down by one, Joachim Löw’s showed resolve with both Sami Khedira and Thomas Müller coming agonizingly close before the break but as the scoreline suggests, neither could find the mark.
At the restart, Germany began to take the match to the Serbian’s with Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski missing on quality chances.
Just before the hour, Nemanja Vidi?, in an out of character error by the highly reliable defender, handled the Köln striker’s cross into the area and a penalty awarded.
Up stepped Lukas Podolski and with a perfect chance to level, Poldi delivered a weak effort towards the bottom right corner that Serbian ‘keeper Vladimir Stojkovi?.
The final half hour, saw Serbia’s Milan Jovanovi? and Nikola Žigi? both narrowly missed increasing the lead but each saw their effort ring off the woodwork and Germany’s chances fall to Lukas Podolski who continuously was unable to close out chances.
Following the Köln’s striker inability to convert another chance with four minutes remaining, Serbia killed off the match to claim the 1-0 victory.