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Gelsenkirchen, AufSchalke Arena. 52,000 spectators Referee: Roberto Rosetti (Italy) Argentina 6 - 0 Serbia and Montenegro 6' [1 - 0] Maxi Rodriguez 31' [2 - 0] Esteban Cambiasso 41' [3 - 0] Maxi Rodriguez 78' [4 - 0] Hernan Crespo 84' [5 - 0] Carlos Alberto Tevez 88' [6 - 0] Lionel Messi
65' Mateja Kezman (Serbia and Montenegro) sent off.
Argentina: Abbondanzieri, Burdisso, Ayala, Heinze, Sorin, Maxi Rodriguez (74' Messi), Mascherano, Gonzalez (16' Cambiasso), Riquelme, Saviola (58' Tevez), Crespo.
Serbia and Montenegro: Jevric, Duljaj, Gavrancic, Krstajic, Dragutinovic, Koroman (49' Ljuboja), Stankovic, Nadj (45' Ergic), P.Djordjevic, Kezman, Milosevic (69' Vukic).
The Argentinians started the match very actively, while the Serbs struggled from the beginning. The Serbian team practically had no real chances in this match and ended up with ten players.
Argentina scored their first goal in the 6th minute - Maxi Rodriguez found the net. A pass from Juan Pablo Sorin on the left was received by Javier Saviola, who passed it to Maxi, and he had no trouble beating the goalkeeper.
After about ten minutes, Luis "Lucho" Gonzalez suffered an injury on the field and had to be taken out. Esteban Cambiasso came in as his replacement, who interestingly took Gonzalez's spot in the starting lineup.
The substitution paid off. Representing Milan "Inter," E. Cambiasso scored the second goal. J. Saviola passed to Juan Roman Riquelme, who then passed to E. Cambiasso. The Inter defender initially didn't take a shot but rather passed the ball to Hernan Crespo, who then passed it back to Cambiasso, and he scored from about 11 meters.
The third goal didn't take long - after about ten minutes, J. Saviola snatched the ball from an opponent on the edge of the field, broke into the penalty area, and even though his shot was blocked by the goalkeeper, Maxi was the first to reach the ball and scored his second goal from a sharp angle.
The situation for the Serbs got even more complicated in the 65th minute - Mateja Kezman, Serbia's attacking leader, was sent off the field for a rough foul on Javier Mascherano, leaving the Balkan team with ten players.
At the end of the match, young talents Lionel Messi and Carlos Tevez, who entered the field as substitutes, created three more goals and managed to bury all Serbian hopes in just 10 minutes: after L. Messi's pass from the edge, H. Crespo scored his second goal of the championship, about five minutes later, after a great individual run, C. Tevez scored a beautiful goal, and at the end of the match, L. Messi, who defeated the Serbian goalkeeper himself, sealed the victory.
Match statistics:
Argentina - Serbia and Montenegro
Ball possession 64.8% - 35.2% Goals 6 - 0 Attempts to shoot 13 - 5 Shots on goal 9 - 1 Shots off target 2 - 2 Blocked shots 2 - 2 Corners 3 - 4 Fouls committed 14 - 22 Offsides 3 - 0 Yellow cards 1 - 3 Red cards 0 - 1 Successful tackles 17 - 8 Accuracy of successful tackles 58.8% - 62.5% Pass completion rate 87.7% - 77.1% Total passes 603 - 328
