The Serbs’ hopes of qualifying for the last 16 were hanging in the balance before the start of Friday’s match after their 1-0 defeat to Ghana in their opening game.

With Germany having blown Australia away in their first match it looked ominous for Serbia, who, before the start of the tournament, had been tipped as potential dark horses after an impressive qualifying campaign.

However, after their slow start the Serbs bounced back with a controversial victory over Germany.

The Germans will count themselves a little unfortunate not to have got anything out of the Group D match, the three time champions having been reduced to ten men after Miroslav Klose was shown a second yellow card in the first half.

Milan Jovanovic then gave the Serbs the lead just a minute later and Radomir Antic’s side were good enough to hold on for a much needed win.

While Ivanovic insists he was over the moon about the win he says their heroics in Port Elizabeth will count for nothing if they don’t finish the job against Australia.

“It’s given us back the respect that we lost in the first game. But we have not finished. We must perform, we must stay compact, we must stay strong in our third game. We must now start thinking of the third game against Australia,” said the Chelsea defender.

“In this game, we showed character and we will just try to do our best on the pitch.

“Everyone is happy now at the moment and there’s a great feeling – but we are not qualified. We just have three points and we need to keep the same focus for the third game.”

Serbia will be full of confidence going into the game with Australia who looked a shadow of the side that reached the last-16 four years ago in their 4-0 defeat to Germany.

However, despite the Socceroos (17/2 to qualify from Group D) poor performance against Germany (2/7) Serbia centre half Nemanja Vidic is reluctant to talk up his team’s chances.

“I have played against a few of their players in England – Lucas Neill, Tim Cahill, Brett Emerton – and I have a big respect for their team. Physically, it will be a difficult game,” said Vidic.

“Our people will be satisfied after we won this game, and that’s the most important thing. If we get to the second round, they will be very, very happy.”

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