Serbia manager showers Germany with praise

Germany received praise from an unexpected quarter on Thursday in the shape of Serbia manager Radomir Antic.

Antic’s Serbia take on the Germans here Friday in what is for the Balkan state a must win game after their opening Group D defeat to Ghana.

Opposing them at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium are a Germany side that dished out a 4-0 rout to Australia in their World Cup curtain raiser.

“Germany played the best game in the first part of this World Cup,” Antic told the pre-match press conference.

“They produced a very good quality game. It’s a team that has a good balance of players, especially young very gifted players who give a special quality to their squad.”

On the evidence to hand Serbia look to have their work cut out on Friday but Antic was relaxed about the task that awaits.

“Unfortunately we lost our first game, we know we can play better than that, we know we have to play better than that.

“Each of my players will have to make an extra effort.

“We are conscious of the fact that we didn’t play to our true level against Ghana, that showed that we have to be more relaxed tomorrow.

“Every player has to do better than normal, I’m sure we’ll find something special to beat Germany.”

Antic is without centre-back Aleksandar Lukovic, dismissed for a second booking with just over a quarter of an hour left in the Ghana defeat.

“Lukovic is out, and I will replace him with Neven Subotic (of Borussia Dortmund, a very good stand in,” Antic announced.

He said his men had been hit hard by their opening loss, but that the mood in the camp had lifted ahead of their date with the three time world champions.

“Since the game we’ve had four training sessions, a video conference and team meetings. I’m quite aware they were not in a good mood after the defeat, but we’ve done our best to improve spirits and to be really ready for Germany.”

Antic was speaking after supervising a closed training session at Port Elizabeth’s Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.

Serbia and Germany were forced to cancel their scheduled pre-match practise at the match stadium itself to allow the pitch time to recover after days of heavy rain.

Antic was relieved conditions had improved markedly in the Eastern Cape.

“We heard about all the wind and the rain before coming here but I’m glad to see beautiful weather.

“My players will come and have a look at the stadium and pitch this afternoon to give them a feeling for the place before the match.”