Serbia stunned Germany 1-0 yesterday in a pulsating World Cup tie marked by a cluster of yellow cards, Miroslav Klose’s sending off and Germany’s Lukas Podolski missing a second-half penalty.
Milan Jovanovic’s first-half goal gave Serbia victory to throw Group D wide open, with Radomir Antic’s side joining Germany and Ghana — who play pointless Australia today — with three points.
Germany coach Joachim Loew said that it had been a disappointing overall performance and while blaming Klose for his red card, insisted that they would still progress to the last 16.
PHOTO: AFP
“We were not as dominant as we had planned,” Loew said. “Klose should have had to be more careful there. Still we have enough quality to get through and we must not let our heads go down.”
Germany striker Klose picked up the first booking of the game and then his fatal second, from Spanish referee Alberto Undiano, in the 37th minute for a tackle on Serbia captain Dejan Stankovic.
Klose, who is appearing in his third finals, said the second booking was an overreaction by the referee.
PHOTO: EPA
“I would have liked to help the team,” said Klose, who belied his poor form last season by scoring in the opening win over Australia. “I tried to play the ball and it was no foul. The referee should have given me a ticking off instead of showing me the yellow.”
Less than a minute after he had left the pitch, Serbia went ahead after a fine three-man move.
Milos Krasic sent a high ball in from the right for Nikola Zigic, the tallest player in the World Cup at 2.2m, to head down for Jovanovic to flick past Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.
The Standard Liege midfielder celebrated by jumping into the arms of a small band of ecstatic Serbian supporters in the stands.
A goal and a man down, Germany had a mountain to climb to get back into the match, but they almost grabbed a first-half stoppage-time equalizer when Sami Khedira’s shot hit the crossbar.
Before he was sent packing, Klose thought he had come up with his 12th World Cup goal on the half-hour, but the linesman’s flag had already been raised for offside.
Trigger-happy Undiano dished out two bookings in the space of barely a minute to Serbian duo Branislav Ivanovic and Aleksandar Kolarov.
It was two cards apiece on 21 minutes when Khedira caught Undiano’s attention for felling Milos Krasic, the latter a menacing threat to Germany down the right wing.
Germany came out for the second half full of intent and Serbia goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic was kept busy as the three-time champions peppered his goal.
Undiano must have thought it was Christmas as he handed out yet another card to Serbia’s Neven Subotic.
The game’s eighth booking for a handball by Vidic in the box led to Germany being awarded a penalty on the hour.
Podolski stepped up, but his spot-kick into the left-hand corner lacked inspiration and Wigan Athletic’s Stojkovic comfortably saved.
Jovanovic then hit the woodwork down at the other end.
With quarter of an hour on the clock, Joachim Loew made a double switch of personnel — Marko Marin and Cacau coming on for Mesut Ozil and Thomas Mueller.
The Germany manager then had his arms raised in frustration as Bastian Schweinsteiger got yellow card number nine.
Hard as Germany tried, Serbia duly held on for a memorable World Cup win.
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