.FRANKFURT: Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella hailed his team's performance in the 3-1 friendly victory over 10-man Germany this morning.

The Germans were left facing a difficult task after 23 year-old Hannover goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler was sent off after half an hour, with the score level at 0-0.

And although there was plenty of postive play from the Germans, they were unable to recover from the early setback, slumping to this defeat. It could have been 4-1 if Lionel Messi had not missed a penalty awarded when Zieler was red-carded.

Argentina took the lead just before halftime when Sami Khadira scored an own goal. Messi made it 2-0 in the 52nd minute before Angel Di Maria made it 3-0 in the 73rd mnute.

Germany replied through Benedikt Howedes.

 "I saw a team, everyone had a steady performance. Given the strength of the opponents, as a whole, it was one of the best matches," Sabella told  Ole.

He also expressed pleasure at his team's reaction to the early sending-off.

"Germany was left with 10 players and this affects (matches), but I think the team responded well against such powerful opponents.

"Messi played a great game in the second half and was helped by Sergio 'Kun' Aguero and Gonzalo Higuain, as well as having more options against the opponents who were a player down."

Sabella was also quick to single out the performances of his defence, after lauding praise on his attacking unit, prior to the game.

"All players in the defence performed well.", adding that he wanted to emphasise how well defender Marcos Rojo had played.

Meanwhile, Germany coach Joachim Loew believes his 10-man team had problems coping with Argentina's stellar strikeforce.

After making a steady start to the match, Zieler received his marching orders for a professional foul on Jose Sosa and DieMannscaft soon collapsed.

"We had 20, 25 very good minutes," Loew told DFB.de. "But the red card took us by surprise and then also the goal.

"After that it was difficult for us against world-class people like Messi, Higuain or Di Maria. We made some tactical errors, but the players gave their all.

"It is difficult to disrupt the opponents when you are outnumbered. In the first 20 minutes, we did it, but not later."

- mD