Argentina keeps ahead of world champion Spain, 4-1
The game World Cup fans had yearned to see in South Africa this summer was played in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, and even though it was a friendly, it pushed the Euro 2012 qualifiers going on in Europe to the back burner.
Argentina, in a performance that delighted its 55,000 supporters at River Plate’s Monumental stadium, scored three times in the first 34 minutes and went on to beat world and European champion Spain, 4-1.
The loss was the Spanish team’s first since it won the World Cup in Johannesburg on July 11 and its worst defeat in a decade.
Even so, the match was not as one-sided as the score would indicate. Spain three times hit the woodwork, twice by David Villa, and had another shot cleared off the line.
Argentina’s 4-0 quarterfinal loss to Germany in South Africa prevented it from playing Spain in that tournament, after which Diego Maradona was ousted as coach.
His interim successor and the man who very likely soon will inherit the job is Sergio “Checho” Batista, a World Cup-winning defensive midfielder for Argentina in 1986 and runner-up in 1990.
Batista has corrected the mistakes made by Maradona, his former teammate, most notably by recalling veterans Javier Zanetti and Ernesto Cambiasso as well as midfielder Ever Banega, a FIFA under-20 World Cup winner in 2007 and Olympic gold medalist in 2008.
All three had been left off the 2010 World Cup squad by Maradona.
Those moves, in turn, increased the confidence of 23-year-old goalkeeper Sergio Romero, who made at least three top-notch saves Tuesday to keep Spain from mounting a comeback.
Meanwhile, Argentina’s attack didn’t need tinkering with. Each of their goals Tuesday was memorable in a different way, beginning with Lionel Messi’s audacious chip over Spanish goalkeeper Jose “Pepe” Reina in the 10th minute and ending with Sergio Aguero’s sharp header in injury time just before the final whistle.
In between, the hapless Reina, filling in for usual starter Iker Casillas, was embarrassed twice more before being replaced at halftime by Victor Valdes.
A mere three minutes after Messi had beaten him, Gonzalo Higuain did so from an acute angle, with Reina again coming out of his net to challenge the attacker and then failing to get to the ball.
The third goal, in the 34th minute, was an absolute embarrassment for Reina. He slipped and fell when trying to clear a simple back-pass from teammate Alvaro Arbeloa and could not recover in time before lively Carlos Tevez sneaked in and hooked the ball into the open net.
Fernando Llorente’s goal in the 84th minute was no more than Spain deserved, but Coach Vicente del Bosque gave praise where praise was due. “Argentina played very well, we have to recognize that,” he said.
In Europe, meanwhile, qualifying play for the 2012 European Championship in Poland and Ukraine continued, with the key teams all coming away with victories, with the exception of Portugal.
Germany, coming off a troublesome 1-0 win over Belgium, crushed Azerbaijan, 6-1, in Cologne. Miroslav Klose scored two of the goals, bringing his tally to 55 in 103 games for Germany, second only behind all-time leader Gerd Mueller’s 68.
The victory kept Germany ahead of Turkey on goal difference in their group, the Turks having won both their games under new Coach Guus Hiddink — 3-0 over Kazakhstan on the road in Astana on Friday and 3-2 over Belgium in Istanbul on Tuesday.
In Basel, Switzerland, England put aside the latest sex scandal to embroil the team — this one tabloid allegations of forward Wayne Rooney’s supposed marital infidelity — and disposed of the Swiss, 3-1. Rooney scored the opener, and Adam Johnson and Darren Bent added second-half goals.
In Rotterdam, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar brought his tally two five goals in two qualifying games as he scored twice in Holland’s 2-1 victory over Finland. The striker netted three goals in a 5-0 rout of San Marino on Friday. Tuesday’s headline-maker, however, was goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg, who was excellent in keeping the Finns at bay.
For Portugal, which was tied, 4-4, at home by Cyprus on Friday, things got even worse in Oslo, where it lost to Norway, 1-0.
France, however, managed to bounce back from a 1-0 home loss to Belarus by defeating Bosnia, 2-0, on the road in Sarajevo on late goals by Karim Benzema and Florent Malouda. It was Les Bleus’ first victory in six competitive matches after their woeful World Cup campaign.
“We deserve the three points,” said Coach Laurent Blanc. “It could be the start of something good.”
Former world champion Italy ran riot in Florence, where Alberto Gilardino, Daniele De Rossi, Antonio Cassano, Fabio Quaglarella and Andrea Pirlo each scored in a 5-0 rout of the Faroe Islands.
Qualifying for Euro 2012 resumes Oct. 8.
