Argentina keen to beat world champions Spain

BUENOS AIRES - Argentina have a good opportunity to restore their football pride and prestige in a high-profile friendly against world champions Spain Tuesday.

The South Americans limped away from the World Cup battered and bruised after a 4-0 quarter-final thrashing by Germany, caused partly by the tactical naivety of coach Diego Maradona.

After returning from South Africa, Maradona was replaced by Sergio Batista, one of his World Cup-winning team-mates from 1986.

Batista called the upcoming friendly “a handsome challenge.” He added that “we should copy Spain in many ways, they are an example.”

A good result could help his cause of getting the Argentina job on a permanent basis.

“At the moment I am the caretaker coach but I do have hopes. I think that I have the capacity to do the job,” he said.

Batista has recalled several players who were controversially overlooked by Maradona for the World Cup. They include Esteban Cambiasso of European champions Inter Milan, who shared Batista’s view on Spain.

“One should not die before trying to play like Spain … That is the way to play football,” Cambiasso said.

Spanish football has never been highly regarded in Argentina. But that has changed in the past two years, as the “tiqui-taca” style of La Roja has conquered first Europe and then the world.

The match, to be played at River Plate’s Estadio Monumental, is already sold out, and black-market tickets are changing hands at a high price.

Argentina’s Interior Minister, Florencio Randazzo, said that the Spain squad was due to make an official visit later Monday to state president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

Randazzo said the match “will be a fiesta for football, a game of the highest level … Who would not like to beat the world champions?”

Tuesday will be an important day for Lionel Messi, who has still not gained the respect and admiration in Argentina that he enjoys in Barcelona, despite his energetic displays in South Africa.

Spain have not played in Argentina since 1978, when they failed to reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup won by the hosts.

The Spanish squad flew in to Buenos Aires on Sunday after an exhausting 14-hour flight from Vienna. On Friday they kicked off their campaign to qualify for Euro 2012 with a relaxed 4-0 rout away to minnows Liechtenstein.

Fernando Torres showed that he is back to form and fitness on Friday with two goals. On Tuesday he will again link up with David Villa, who is now just one goal away from equalling Raul’s record of 44 goals for Spain.

Spain coach Vicente del Bosque expressed the hope that the match “will be good propaganda for football.”

“The players should not rest content with what they have achieved, because life is short and one should always try to achieve more. Now we have a great responsibility, as champions of the world,” he said.

The diplomatic Del Bosque described Argentina as “a great team.”

“They always have been. The players are extraordinarily competitive, they have quality and always adapt themselves to different kinds of football,” he said.