Vidic bids for calm as Serbia fans riot

MANCHESTER UNITED defender Nemanja Vidic was forced to appeal to Serbia fans for calm as they rioted during his side’s embarrassing 1-0 friendly defeat by New Zealand in Klagenfurt on Saturday night.

During the second half of the World Cup warm-up in Austria, fans began throwing flares and missiles onto the turf while a number of fans ran onto the pitch before being captured by stewards.

Vidic was standing in as Serbia captain in Dejan Stankovic’s absence and had to speak over the tannoy 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 something following Shane Smeltz’s first-half strike.