Germany Held At Home By Messi-less Argentina News

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Germany Held At Home By Messi-less Argentina

By Daily Sports on October 10, 2019

An experimental Germany team leaked two second-half goals on Wednesday as a weakened Argentina side, minus superstar Lionel Messi, earned a 2-2 draw in a friendly in Dortmund.

Germany flew into a 2-0 lead thanks to first-half goals by Serge Gnabry and Kai Havertz, but Lucas Alario turned the game in the second-half when he came on for Argentina.

The Leverkusen striker pulled a goal back, then set up Lucas Ocampos for the late equaliser against a German team which included four debutants.

Freiburg pair, defender Robin Koch, a late call-up on Monday who was thrust into a makeshift back three at the last-minute, and striker Luca Waldschmidt started.

Leverkusen forward Nadiem Amiri and Schalke midfielder Suat Serdar came on to make their second-half debuts.

The Germans had already been forced into a hastily re-arranged defence as Koch replaced centre-back Niklas Stark, who pulled out before kick-off with a stomach bug.

Despite 13 withdrawals due to either illness or injury, Germany impressed early against an Argentina team missing Messi, Sergio Aguero and Angel di Maria.

With Messi suspended for comments made at the Copa America, Juventus' Paulo Dybala partnered Lautaro Martinez up front for Argentina.

should have been 3-0 when Brandt just failed to connect with a Niklas Suele header with the goal at his mercy as it stayed 2-0 at the break.

However, the South Americans had the best of the second-half, starting when Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni put Alario on for Dybala on 62 minutes.

The Leverkusen striker showed his strength in the air to head past Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen four minutes later.

The visitors equalised when Alario set up Sevilla's Lucas Ocampos, a second-half replacement for Correa, to blast past ter Stegen five minutes from time. (SuperSport)

•PHOTO: Germany players

Source Daily Sports

Posted October 10, 2019