Argentina set the benchmark for the World Cup with a magnificent 6-0 demolition of Serbia & Montenegro as they immediately became tournament favourites and the team everyone will want to avoid. Their performance was packed with classy, high-speed football and marvellous individual displays amid great teamwork and memorable goals. The display was all the more remarkable as it was achieved against a Serbian team who conceded just one goal in their qualifying campaign. This record was shredded by one of the most complete 90 minute performances seen at a World Cup for many years. Within moments of the players leaving the pitch the Argentine fans turned their attention to the watching Diego Maradona who was swinging his shirt in wild celebration. But not even Maradona’s team, nor the 1978 vintage who won the tournament on home soil, produced such an emphatic display against high quality European opposition. The label has been pinned on just about every promising youngster in the national team over the last decade but the more mature Juan Riquelme, though a totally different type of player, was a worthy inheritor of the famous number 10 shirt on Friday. Initially marked tightly, the 27-year-old emerged from the shackles to stride the pitch like a colossus, spraying passes short and long in every direction with virtual disdain for the scurrying Serbians struggling to shut him down. Javier Saviola gave a mature all-round performance that belied his 24 years and he provided a constant menace up front before being replaced after an hour. Lionel Messi did not feature in the opening 2-1 win over Ivory Coast and, with a doubt over his injured foot, was held back until the 74th minute. By then Argentina were cruising from their 3-0 halftime lead but his introduction, and that of Carlos Tevez for Saviola, ensured they finished with a flourish. Messi set up Hernan Crespo for the fourth goal, Tevez then produced a great run before Messi completed the rout with a cool finish two minutes from time. -Mitch Phillips
