The loss of Michael Essien, their inspiration in the last World Cup, appears to have shaken Ghana badly. They were swept away 4-1 by Holland in Amsterdam in a match described as a 'lynching' by senior sources in Accra, although they recovered their balance with victory over Latvia. When they arrived in South Africa, they pronounded themselves dissastisifed with thier hotel in Pretoria and moved to another in Sun City. The head of the Ghana FA, Kwesi Nyantakyi, has given his team a target to reach the quarter-finals but with Sulley Muntari struggling because of a thigh injury, they are likely to miss more than Essien in the Loftus Versfeld Stadium.

Serbia have every reason to be confident. They topped their group ahead of France, their fans were solidly behind them in Belgrade's Marakana ' something that has not always been the case ' and the spine of Raddy Antic's team, composed of Nemanja Vidic, Nikola Zigic and Dejan Stankovic, seemed remarkably solid. And then came the friendlies  defeat by New Zealand; a goalless draw with the Poland side that was to be annihilated by Spain; and a slapdash 4-3 win over Cameroon in what was supposed to be a dress rehearsal for the Ghana game in which they conceded twice to Pierre Webo early on.

This is a big, big encounter between two fine sides, who have each encountered some local difficulty recently. Speaking before the game in Pretoria, the Ghana midfielder, Stephen Appiah, said he was more scared of Serbia than he was of Germany. The fact  they are Ghana's first opponents a increases the fear factor but Serbia have been in an odd mood and their well drilled 4-4-2 formation was exploited ruthlessly by Webo. The best bet is probably a score draw.