Ghana may yet rue their inability to capitalise on a one-man advantage for some 66 minutes of their match against Australia on Saturday, and thus to claim all three points a win would have given them.

The teams played to a 1-1 draw in Rustenburg, a result which really suited neither side in their quest for the second round.

The Black Stars had enough chances, but a mixture of poor finishing and good goalkeeping from Socceroos stopper Mark Schwarzer kept them at bay, and they now know that defeat to Germany, coupled with a win for Serbia over Australia, would send them home.

“The match was quite difficult because we had youngsters in the team, but they started to fight for the result," said Ghana coach Milovan Rajevac afterwards.

"We tried to score a second but could not convert our chances. All my players had a good game and we have four points now. We will have to see how it goes in the match against Germany.”

Black Stars midfielder Andre Ayew felt the point Ghana earned was a good one to gain, but says they should have capitalised on their numerical advantage, achieved when Australia's Harry Kewell was sent off.

“What was important was not to lose,” he said. “But we were playing ten against 11 for a long time and when it’s in a competition like this, you have to do better. We should have capitalised but we need to forget about this. We need to focus on Germany. It’s going to be an important game."

The Australians are all but out, needing to beat Serbia - and hoping that Ghana do likewise in their contest with Germany - to advance. But those are probably the two least likely results in those matches.

“We went ahead and it was going well,” Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek said. “Once we went down to ten men we had to work very hard, and I think that’s what they did. I’m proud of the players – playing with a man less for that long is not easy. We’re still in the race but it’s going to be difficult now. We need to win against Serbia and score at least three or four goals. Ok, that’s the job.”