A late sending off and an even later penalty decision proved to be the deciding factors between these evenly matched teams on a glorious Sunday in Pretoria.
It was a case of smash-and-grab for Ghana in their opening game of their South African adventure against a Serbia side with physical presence to spare.
Ghana – known for their powerful players found themselves on the receiving end of some good pressure from the Serbians, with Marko Pantelic shooting narrowly wide in the opening minutes.
The Black Stars weren’t to be outshone though, as Portsmouth’s Kevin-Prince Boateng – recently switched to adidas F50 adiZero‘s from Nike Mercurial Vapor 5‘s – was the source of a teasing ball through the Serbian back four, which man of the match Asamoah Gyan couldn’t quite get on the end of.
With both teams deadlocked, it took until the 74th minute to see something give between them. That something was Aleksandar Lukovic, who saw red after his second yellow card of the game.
After this the game sprang back into life, with the Ghanaian‘s determined to capitalise and Serbia desperate not to come undone. Victory in Pretoria was to be the Africans though, as a shameful handball from sub Zdravko Kuzmanovic in his own area gave Asamoah Gyan the chance to give his team the winner from 12-yards.
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