Ghana scores a winner for Africa

Asamoah Gyan scored an 85th-minute penalty to help Ghana to a 1-0 victory over Serbia and the first win by an African team at this World Cup.

Ghana's defender John Paintsil celebrates with his national flag at the end of the Group D match against Serbia.

PRETORIA // Milovan Rajevac, the Ghana coach, hailed called it a win for "all of Africa" as Asamoah Gyan united the continent in jubilation last night by scoring the only goal against Serbia. The Black Stars became the first African team to win a World Cup match on their own continent. With South Africa drawing their opening game and both Nigeria and Algeria losing, the Ghanaians, cheered on by a collection of vocal supporters, flew the flag for Africa in front of 38,833 spectators. A physical but fair encounter sparked into life when Aleksandar Lukovic, the Serbia defender, was shown a second yellow card for cynically hauling Gyan back in the 74th minute. Eleven minutes later, Ghana, having being forced to ride a storm by the desperate Serbs, took the late lead when substitute Zdravo Kuzmanovic needlessly handled inside the penalty area. Gyan stepped converted the spot kick to send Ghana - and Africa - into ecstasy. "This is a win not just for us, but for all of Africa," said Rajevac, himself a Serb. "The players performed together as a team and together they produced the first win for an African team on African soil. I am happy tonight because the continent of Africa is happy."

The result was harsh on the Serbs who had at times looked the more likely to score. They were making their first appearance at a World Cup since winning independence from Montenegro in 2006 and Marko Pantelic, the Ajax forward, had revealed pre-match that his side had never studied a team as hard as they had studied Ghana. Their homework had clearly highlighted their opponents' weakness from free-kicks and had the Serbian forwards been more clinical they could have won. Nikola Zigic missed two fine chances, while Pantelic failed to hit the target when sent through on goal in the first half. Rajevac admitted his side had been "the luckier team" and revealed the victory tasted bittersweet after watching several of his countrymen fall to their knees in tears at the final whistle. "This was a difficult, emotional game for me," he said "For sure, for myself and my job this a great victory, but I am sorry for the Serbian team." Raddy Antic, the opposing coach, said: "We had no problems, but the sending off was hard to take. The negative result does not reflect how we played" [e-mail] Man of the Match: Asamoah Gyan (Ghana)