{"id":2460,"date":"2014-03-06T08:40:15","date_gmt":"2014-03-06T08:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/?p=2460"},"modified":"2014-03-06T08:42:56","modified_gmt":"2014-03-06T08:42:56","slug":"messi-couldnt-find-the-net-as-romania-hold-argentina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/football\/messi-couldnt-find-the-net-as-romania-hold-argentina\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi Couldn&#8217;t Find The Net As Romania Hold Argentina"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Argentina&#8217;s attacking stars failed to find a way through a resilient Romania outfit in a surprising goalless draw in Bucharest.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the much-vaunted trio of Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain and Sergio Aguero starting up front, the South American side drew a blank against the underdogs, with Barcelona&#8217;s Messi conspicuous by his lack of influence on the game.<\/p>\n<p>With less than 100 days to go until the World Cup, boss Alejandro Sabella may be slightly concerned that a team that may well be his first choice XI in Brazil struggled to break down a side that failed to qualify for this summer&#8217;s extravaganza.<\/p>\n<p>They tried to assert their authority from the kick-off, but despite the envious trio they had in attack, it was defender Jose Basanta who had the first chance when headed over from a corner kick.<\/p>\n<p>Angel Di Maria then played through former Real Madrid team-mate Higuain and the Napoli striker should have done better after being thwarted by Romania goalkeeper Ciprian Anton Tatarusanu.<\/p>\n<p>At the other end, Romania served notice that they were not content to simply sit back and defend as striker Ciprian Marica&#8217;s header forced visiting custodian Sergio Romero to tip over.<\/p>\n<p>Romero then made an excellent save to keep out Alexandru Maxim&#8217;s close range header, while at the other end, Manchester City talisman Aguero burst past four Romania defenders only to produce a wasteful final ball.<\/p>\n<p>Aguero continued to cause a nuisance of himself after the break by taking the ball past half-time substitute goalkeeper and City team-mate Costel Pantilimon before his strike was blocked on the line by defender Florin Gardos.<\/p>\n<p>Sabella&#8217;s side continued to pour forward, with Inter Milan striker Rodrigo Palacio firing wide following an excellent delivery into the area from Marcos Rojo.<\/p>\n<p>Paris Saint-Germain frontman Ezequiel Lavezzi was introduced to the action late on in place of Higuain but he was denied by a tremendous save by Pantilimon to ensure a goalless stalemate.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>sky<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Argentina&#8217;s attacking stars failed to find a way through a resilient Romania outfit in a surprising goalless draw in Bucharest. Despite the much-vaunted trio of Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain and Sergio Aguero starting up front, the South American side drew a blank against the underdogs, with Barcelona&#8217;s Messi conspicuous by his lack of influence on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,81],"tags":[37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2460"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2462,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2460\/revisions\/2462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}