London: Argentina beat 10-man hosts Germany 3-1 in an international soccer friendly at Frankfurt Arena Wednesday while Alexandre Pato scored a brace to help Brazil breeze past Sweden 3-0.
Lionel Messi, Angelo Di Maria and Sami Khedira`s own goal helped "La Albiceleste" to take the win. Goalkeeper Ron Robert Zieler weakened the German side with a straight red card, only 12 minutes into the match, reports Xinhua.
Germany staged an offensive start whereas Argentina needed some time to gain a foothold into the match. Zieler ensured the first highlight of the match when he tackled Jose Sosa inside the penalty box in the 12th minute. Substitute goalkeeper Marc Andre ter Stegen came from the bench to parry a weak shot by Lionel Messi from the spot to deny Argentina the lead.
However, in the dying minutes of the first half, German midfielder Sami Khedira opened the scoring with an own goal, from very close range, when he attempted to clear a Di Maria corner from the near post.
"After the red card we had fallen behind. The own goal was not helpful for us, but Argentina played well and gave us a hard fight," Germany coach Joachim Loew said after the match.
Pato scored a quick-fire brace in the 84th and 87th minutes, the latter a penalty, to ensure Brazil`s dominance over a Swedish side missing injured captain Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Leandro Damiao, who was instrumental in getting Brazil a silver medal at the London Olympics, opened the scoring in the 32nd minute.
Hungary and Israel played out a 1-1 tie in Budapest.
The tie was both team`s last warm-up games before their FIFA World Cup qualifying campaigns starts in September.
Hungary will play in Group D with the Netherlands, Turkey, Romania, Estonia, and Andorra. Israel will take on Portugal, Russia, Northern Ireland, Azerbaijan, and Luxembourg in Group F.
England trumped Italy 2-1, for the first time in 15 years, thanks to a late goal from Jermaine Defoe.
In Bayamon, Santi Cazorla and Cesc Fabregas scored goals in the opening half for world champion Spain, who beat Puerto Rico, stretching their unbeaten streak to 12 straight matches.
Following are the results of international soccer friendly matches on Wednesday (home teams listed first):
Denmark 1 (Mikkelsen 22) Slovakia 3 (Jakubko 63, Hamsik 72, Guldan 83)
England 2 (Jagielka 27, Defoe 79) Italy 1 (De Rossi 15)
Estonia 1 (Vassiljev 90) Poland 0
France 0 Uruguay 0
Germany 1 (Hoewedes 82) Argentina 3 (Khedira 45+1-og, Messi 52, Di Maria 73)
Hungary 1 (Dzsudzsak 51) Israel 1 (Hemed 80)
Iceland 2 (Sigthorsson 30, 90) Faroe Islands 0
Montenegro 2 (Jovetic, Kasalica) Latvia 0
Northern Ireland 3 (Ferguson 7, Lafferty 19, Paterson 84-pen) Finland 3 (Sparv 22, Pukki 24, Hetemaj 78)
Norway 2 (Hangeland 13, Riise 75) Greece 3 (Torosidis 7, K. Papadopoulos 11, Mitroglou 56)
Portugal 2 (Oliveira 31, Ronaldo 50) Panama 0
Russia 1 (Dzagoev 55) Ivory Coast 1 (Gradel 77)
Serbia 0 Republic of Ireland 0
Scotland 3 (Rhodes 29, Davidson 63-og, McCormack 76) Australia 1 (Bresciano 19)
Slovenia 4 (Cesar 4, Dedic 51-pen, 60, Kirm 69) Romania 3 (Papp 56, Torje 68-pen, Grozav 79)
Sweden 0 Brazil 3 (Leandro Damiao 32, Pato 84, 87-pen)
Ukraine 0 Czech Republic 0 Enditem
Wales 0 Bosnia-Herzegovina 2 (Ibisevic 21, Stevanovic 54)
Albania 0 Moldova 0
Armenia 1 (Verkhovtsov 72-og) Belarus 2 (Bressan 44, 66)
Austria 2 (Kavlak 2, Ivanschitz 6-pen) Turkey 0
Azerbaijan 3 (Subasic 35, Ozkara 59, Hyseynov 79) Bahrain 0
Belgium 4 (Benteke 19, Mertens 74, Lukaku 77, Vertonghen 80) Netherlands 2 (Narsingh 53, Huntelaar 55)
Bulgaria 1 (Mitsanski 66) Cyprus 0
Croatia 2 (Eduardo 20, 65) Switzerland 4 (G. Xhaka 11, Barnetta 37, Gavranovic 52, 81)
IANS
First Published: Thursday, August 16, 2012, 16:07