Berlin: Sergio Aguero headed a late winner as visiting Argentina beat World Cup hosts Russia 1-0 on Saturday in a friendly international for the re-opening of Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium.
The Manchester City star Aguero was successful on his second attempt off a cross from the right by substitute Cristian Pavon in the 86th.
Spain, world champions in 2010, had no such wait as they strolled past fellow 2018 qualifiers Costa Rica 5-0 in Malaga having led by two at half-time.
In Russia, Aguero was denied by goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev on the stroke of half-time, and Russia’s Konstantin Rausch cleared Lionel Messi’s lob on the goal-line shortly after the restart.
“We stressed that we were coming to play in a place where we should have a lot of patience to open the game,” Argentina coach Jorge Sampaoli said.
“The opponent came out with a defensive attitude to neutralise our game.”
Russia were mainly harmless in the game which saw the official debut of next year’s World Cup ball, the Telstar 18.
“We knew that it would be a difficult match, that we will not possess the ball and the initiative,” Russia coach Stanislav Cherchesov said.”In the tactical plan, we managed to play properly in defence.
“I think the opponent was stronger than us — although such matches can be played 0-0 or won 1-0. Ahead of us difficult matches are waiting, so we must learn to win in such situations.”
Originally built in the mid-1950s, and the main venue at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, the Luzhniki got a full facelift over more than four years for some 400 million dollars and was expanded to an 81,000 capacity.
The historic facade was preserved but the running track no longer exists as fans are now closer to the action at football games.
The stadium will host several games at the 2018 World Cup, including the June 14 tournament opener and the July 15 final.
Spain will certainly consider themselves contenders to be contesting that showpiece though they will have to pass tougher tests than that provided by Costa Rica.
Jordi Alba broke the deadlock in just six minutes and Alvaro Morata doubled the lead in 23 to make the outcome inevitable.
David Silva notched a quick-fire double in 51 and 55 before veteran midfielder Andres Iniesta netted his first international goal in more than two years to complete the rout.
“Lately it seems we are making our rivals look weaker than they really are,” Morata said. “It happened with Italy (in qualifying) and it happened tonight.
“I was happy to get my goal. It was a straightforward chance but you have to put them in.”
Elsewhere, the 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar welcomed the Czech Republic in a Doha friendly but went down 1-0 to Antonin Barak’s goal and Macedonia beat Norway 2-0.
— dpa
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