The Manchester United defender Nemanja Vidic was forced to appeal to Serbia fans for calm as they rioted during his side's 1-0 friendly defeat by New Zealand in Klagenfurt.

During the second half of the World Cup warm-up in Austria, fans began throwing flares and missiles on to the turf while a number of fans ran on to the pitch before being captured by stewards. Vidic was standing in as Serbia's captain in the absence of Dejan Stankovic and had to speak over the public-address system to placate fans with New Zealand apparently ready to abandon the game.

After a few minutes the trouble calmed and the action restarted, with Serbia unable to salvage anything from the match.

New Zealand's goalscorer, Shane Smeltz, said his side would not get carried away despite the victory. Smeltz scored the only goal midway through the first half as the All Whites upset a side 63 places above them in the Fifa world rankings.

"It's great to get a win over a nation like Serbia who some are saying are dark horses for the World Cup," he said. "We'll take some confidence from it obviously, but we won't be getting carried away."

The New Zealand coach, Ricki Herbert, picked out a number of his less experienced players for special praise. "It's always been about performance for us, but a win like this over a top-class nation like Serbia is a great bonus," he said. "We made four changes and I thought Tommy Smith and Winston Reid, who only have three caps between them, did extremely well at the back alongside the captain [Ryan Nelsen].

"Jeremy Christie came into midfield and did well and Chris Wood in his first start against a big team was outstanding."

The Germany coach, Joachim Löw, admits he now faces a very tough decision after his side beat Hungary 3-0 in Budapest on Saturday and had some reassuring words for the striker Miroslav Klose who has struggled to find form in recent matches. Löw must cut two players from his squad before submitting his 23-man list to Fifa on Tuesday but his players' performance makes it a difficult task.

"The coaching team will now sit down together on Sunday and Monday and we will announce our squad on Tuesday," he said. "Of course it is going to hurt the two players that it affects, but unfortunately we can only take 23 with us."

Strikers Lukas Podolski, Mario Gomez and Cacau should all be sure of their places after each finding the back of the net.

Klose, who wore the captain's armband in the absence of Philipp Lahm, was disappointing but Löw jumped to his defence.

"Miro has not played regularly for a while and we knew it was going to be a tough challenge," the Germany coach said. "We know he is not in the form that he can be in, but we still have time. Miro has a lot of quality, but he has got to work in training to gain the self-confidence that a striker needs."

It seems certain that Klose will make the squad which flies out to South Africa next weekend since he "always comes good in the big games", according to Löw.

Sami Khedira put in a notable performance in the centre of the midfield, although the Germany bench had to hold its breath when he limped out of the action. But the Stuttgart player, who is expected to replace the injured Michael Ballack at the heart of the midfield, insists it was nothing to worry about.

"I just felt a twinge in my muscle and that is why I didn't come out for the second half," he said. "It was purely a precautionary measure."

Marcell Jansen appeared for the final 30 minutes to play his first game in almost two months and he is confident he will be able to prove his fitness in the next few days to make the cut. "I don't think I will be dropped from the squad," he said. "That's because I don't think it would have made any sense [bringing me], it would have made more sense not to call me up at all."