Argentina off to slow start

Argentina faced the prospect of becoming the second high profile team to bow out of the World Cup as they kicked off against Sweden today.

But they made immediate inroads down the right, with Ariel Ortega finding Claudio Lopez for an inswinging cross which Andreas Jakobsson was forced to head clear.

But Sweden settled and should have done better in the fifth minute with a free-kick 25 yards out when Chamot brought down Marcus Allback, only for Henrik Larsson’s curler to bounce off the wall for a corner which came to nothing.

Gabriel Batistuta then had his own free-kick attempt soon after, but from 35 yards his right-foot shot was high, wide and anything but handsome.

Considering what was at stake, there did not appear to be a great deal of urgency from either team, with a half-chance from Southampton’s Anders Svensson soon driven wide from 20 yards following a chest down from Allback.

It took until the 13th minute for the game to spring to life, with Aimar feeding a ball out wide for Javier Zanetti, who produced a superb cross which Juan Sorin powered goalwards, only for Magnus Hedman to produce an excellent point-blank save.