20100612
allafrica

Ghana open their 2010 FIFA World Cup Group D campaign against Serbia at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria on Sunday, hoping to overcome the loss of key man Michael Essien in the build-up to the finals.

The Black Stars have a young squad, but one that did superbly in reaching the final of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations in Angola in January, a feat that was achieved without Essien.

They have not had the best of preparations for the World Cup, first losing 4-1 to the Netherlands in their first warm-up match, and then scraping a 1-0 win over minnows Latvia in their second. They also switched bases from Pretoria to Sun City during the week after being less than pleased with the facilities at their first hotel.

Despite this, the players are upbeat about their chances, and the likes of Sulley Muntari and Stephen Appiah can call on the experiences of four years ago in Germany when they negotiated a tricky group that included Italy, the Czech Republic and the United States to qualify for the second round.

Adding spice is the fact that their coach, Milovan Rajevac, is a Serb. He insists, however, that he will have no divided loyalties on Sunday.

"I am 100 percent Ghanaian. I am a professional, my primary target is to win against Serbia and to qualify," he says.

Muntari adds that the Black Stars know very little about their European opponents, who qualified ahead of France for the finals and count among their ranks the likes of Nikola Zigic, Marko Pantelic, Dejan Stankovic and Nemanja Vidic.

A good start is crucial for the Ghanaians, with matches against Australia and a tough Germany still to come. That means they might well be vying with the Serbians for the second spot in the pool.

"Germany are the group favourites and so it will doubtless come down to Serbia – we don't know quite what to expect against them, but we know they are a good team," says Muntari.

Serbia have a history of qualifying easily for major finals, but then falling apart on the big stage. The players are well aware of this and have promised that it will not happen this time round.

They may have to shore up their back line though, after conceding soft goals last weekend during their 4-3 win over Cameroon in their final warm-up.

"We didn't lose any confidence against Cameroon, our defence remains one of the strongest parts of our game," defender Aleksandar Lukovic says.

"All of the team works hard in defence, we were maybe a bit naive in conceding three goals... but it was only a farewell match before we went to the World Cup. I truly believe everything will be fine for our first game against Ghana."

The result was at least an improvement on Serbia's previous performances - they had been shocked 1-0 by minnows New Zealand the week before, and also been held to 0-0 by Poland.