Argentina beats 10-man Germany 3-1 in soccer friendly

 BERLIN, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Argentina beat 10-man hosts Germany 3-1 in an international soccer friendly at Frankfurt Arena¹ on Wednesday.

Lionel Messi, Angelo Di Maria and Sami Khedira's own goal helped "La Albiceleste" to take the win. Goalie Ron Robert Zieler weakened the German side with a straight red card, only 12 minutes into the match.

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 penalty box in the 12th minute, to cause a straight red card and a penalty. Substitute goalkeeper Marc Andre ter Stegen came from the bench to parry a weak shot by Lionel Messi from the spot to deny 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. Thus Germany had to swallow an unlucky deficit² before the break.

Five minutes into second half Mesut Oezil sent the ball home on Sami Khedira's assist, but the referee³ decided⁴ on offside. Only two minutes later Argentine top striker Lionel Messi utilized⁵ a diagonal pass by Gonzalo Higuain to curl home from 15 meters central position into bottom left to make it 2-0 on the scoreboards.

In the 73rd minute, Argentina midfielder Angel Di Maria tripled the lead with a hammering shot from 20 meters to beat Germany goalkeeper ter Stegen.

Time was running out for the Germans, who were only able to shorten the score to 3-1, owing to the consolation⁶ goal by Benedikt Hoewedes, following diagonal pass into path by midfielder Mario Goetze.

"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.

1 arena   

n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台

参考例句：

• She entered the political arena at the age of 25. 她25岁进入政界。
• He had not an adequate arena for the exercise of his talents.他没有充分发挥其才能的场所。

2 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

3 referee   

n.裁判员．仲裁人，代表人，鉴定人

参考例句：

• The team was left raging at the referee's decision.队员们对裁判员的裁决感到非常气愤。
• The referee blew a whistle at the end of the game.裁判在比赛结束时吹响了哨子。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 utilized   

v.利用，使用( utilize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• In the19th century waterpower was widely utilized to generate electricity. 在19世纪人们大规模使用水力来发电。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The empty building can be utilized for city storage. 可以利用那栋空建筑物作城市的仓库。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 consolation   

n.安慰，慰问

参考例句：

• The children were a great consolation to me at that time.那时孩子们成了我的莫大安慰。
• This news was of little consolation to us.这个消息对我们来说没有什么安慰。