Serbia leads Germany 1-0 at halftime

Germany opened up their campaign with a 4-0 rout of Australia thanks to goals from Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose, Thomas Muller and Cacau, while Serbia suffered a 1-0 defeat by Ghana.

Germany posed a great pressure on Serbia as three minutes into the game, Sami Khedira collected the ball from Mesut Ozil but kicked the ball wide. Again for the Germans at the eighth minute Lukas Podolski wasted another chance on the edge of the box.

At the 36th minute, Miroslav Klose, who tripped Dejan Stankovic, received his second yellow card and was sent off. Serbia cashed in on Klose's absence with Milan Jovanovic slotting home a goal two minutes later to make Serbia lead 1-0.

Serbia seemed to be looking to a break a streak of five World Cup defeats in a row.

These two sides have faced each other 27 times with Germany taking 16 wins, four draws and seven losses; Kazinform cites Xinhua.

See www.xinhuanet.com/english2010/ for full version