Real Madrid's Gonzalo Higuain scored the only goal of the game as Argentina claimed a 1-0 win over Germany.
Argentina seal success in Munich
Real Madrid's Gonzalo Higuain scored the only goal of the game as Argentina claimed a 1-0 win over Germany in Munich.
Diego Maradona's side - who scraped through qualification - lived up to their billing as one of the favourites for this summer's World Cup finals with victory over Germany.
The only goal of the game arrived on the stroke of half-time with Higuain firing home.
The Real Madrid striker pounced on the first of several errors by Germany goalkeeper Rene Adler, who failed to justify his nomination as the national team's new No.1.
Argentina also hit the crossbar as they looked much stronger than Germany, who clearly have a lot of work to do before the World Cup starts in June, and a change in goalkeeper cannot be ruled out.
Both sides struggled to get going with plenty of interruptions in the first half and gave the impression that neither really wanted to take any risks.
The first shot of the game was 22 minutes in coming, and it was a purely speculative effort from Germany full-back Philipp Lahm, who cut in from the left wing and shot wide of the far post.
Although it was officially a friendly match, the number of fouls and the fact three yellow cards were shown in the first 45 minutes suggested that it was a game both teams were taking seriously.
Argentina defender Martin Demichelis, playing in the stadium of his club side Bayern Munich, was the first in referee Martin Atkinson's book after half an hour when he halted Mesut Ozil's run towards his goal.
It was a foul as the last man, but since Ozil still had over 40 yards to cover, and perhaps also because it was a friendly, Atkinson only showed yellow.
The game slowly started to open up towards the end of the half with Angel Di Maria taking advantage of the first German defensive slip-up to strike the crossbar from 18 yards.
Mix-up
And it was another defensive mix-up which allowed Higuain to put the visitors ahead on the stroke of half time.
He left Germany's new number one Adler with egg on his face, first nudging the ball past him and then placing the his shot into the back of an empty goal from over 25 yards.
Adler was only confirmed as Germany's number one for the World Cup 48 hours ago and coach Joachim Low may well be reconsidering that choice, especially since his assistant Andeas Kopke also stated that "only Adler can lose the number one jersey" between now and June.
The second half did not start well for the Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper either.
He again raced out of his goal to make a poor clearance which Juan Sebastian Veron, initially obstructed a little by the referee, lifted back over his head but also just a few feet over the crossbar.
Germany eventually reacted, particularly after Stuttgart striker Cacau took to the field for Ozil.
He saw the home team's best effort of the night saved in the 77th minute before volleying over the crossbar shortly afterwards.
But the night belonged to Adler, albeit in a negative sense.
He almost gifted Argentina a second when he fumbled a corner onto the back of Nicolas Burdisso only to pick up the rebound before it crept inside his near post.
