Argentina underline status as favourites

Monday, 13 May 02, 03:06 PM · Comments(0)

Argentina underlined their status as World Cup 2002 favourites with a 1-0 victory over Germany in Stuttgart on Wednesday as 28 of the 32 hopefuls warmed up for next month's start to the finals in South Korea and Japan.

The highlight of the night, a repeat of the 1986 and 1990 finals, was anything but a friendly, however, as both sides crashed into the tackle before and after Juan Pablo Sorin's decisive 48th minute header.

In another meeting of former winners, Italy and Uruguay drew 1-1 in Milan while Brazil were also held 1-1 in Portugal and holders France had a disappointing goalless draw with Russia in Paris.

The big winners on the night were Spain and England who thrashed Northern Ireland 5-0 and Paraguay 4-0 respectively.

Denmark's 3-1 win over Israel in Copenhagen was overshadowed by clashes between police and anti-Israel protesterswhen around 100 of 1,800 protesters tried to force their way into the Parken stadium.

Around 150 people were arrested before Denmark won with first-half goals by Jan Heintze, Jon Dahl Tomasson and Dennis Rommedahl.

Other World Cup hopefuls to chalk up victories included Turkey, Ireland, Nigeria and Slovenia. Turkey clinched their first win in a friendly for five years with a 2-0 win over Chile in the game played in the Netherlands.

Senegal, China, Saudi Arabia and joint-host South Korea were the four World Cup teams having a rest.

The pick of the night's games was the heavyweight clash between three-times world champions Germany and twice-winners Argentina and in their first meeting for nine years they wasted little time in renewing hostilities in a bruising encounter.

Argentina were missing several leading players, notably central defender Roberto Ayala, midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron, record goalscorer Gabriel Batistuta and fellow striker Hernan Crespo.

They might now be without another after losing midfielder Marcelo Gallardo to a terrible challenge from German midfielder Jens Jeremies.

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