For Germany, the damage may be only superficial. They will still confidently expect to clamber safely out of Group D but they have now been shown as fallible when the perception was previously that, when it comes to the World Cup, there is no side who are better prepared or more clear-eyed about their objectives. After swatting aside Australia with almost contemptuous ease in their opening match, Germany were beaten here by a 38th-minute goal from Milan Jovanovic, newly of Liverpool, and the failure of Lukas Podolski to score from the penalty spot after Nemanja Vidic’s handball on the hour. The result ends a run of five consecutive World Cup defeats for Serbia and, in the process, represents the biggest shock of the competition to date bar Switzerland’s victory over Spain. • Follow the Guardian’s World Cup team on Twitter • Sign up to play our great Fantasy Football game • Stats centre: Get the lowdown on every player • The latest team-by-team news, features and more There is now considerable pressure on Germany going into their final match against Ghana when Joachim Löw’s side will be missing their most prolific striker Miroslav Klose, who was sent off in a match that will mark the name of Alberto Undiano into every black book of every student of refereeing demonology. The Spanish official brandished 11 red cards in 17 games in La Liga last season and his performance here marked him down as a referee other teams in this competition will want to avoid. In total, he showed his yellow card nine times and that actually seemed conservative given the rate at which he was reaching for his pocket in the first half. In that period there were seven, two of which went to Klose to leave Germany a man down for 64 minutes of an eccentric and entertaining match. The protests from Germany were long and vociferous but, in both cases, Klose was guilty of taking down a player when they had run away from him, even if there was no malice in either challenge. The first came after 12 minutes when Branislav Ivanovic burst out of defence. Klose, chasing back to make the tackle, clipped his opponent’s heels, at least with a degree of cynicism. After that, the striker was as culpable of naivety as well as poor tackling because it was soon obvious that Undiano was not going to show leniency to anyone. After 36 minutes, the Serbia captain, Dejan Stankovic, got a yard away from Klose, and as the Bayern Munich player extended one of his legs to try to prod the ball away he caught his opponent’s heel. The damage was exacerbated two minutes later when Milos Krasic’s cross was knocked down by Nikola Zigic for Jovanovic to turn in the game’s decisive moment. In the circumstances, an argument could be made that Germany acquitted themselves well, putting together a number of scoring chances after the interval. Unfortunately for them, this was a day when Podolski’s finishing was encapsulated by his weak effort from the penalty spot and a late onslaught came to nothing. World Cup 2010 Group D Germany Serbia World Cup 2010 Daniel Taylor guardian.co.uk
Link:
Germany 0-1 Serbia | World Cup 2010 Group D match report
