FOOTBALL NEWS FROM Euro 2012
Second-string Argentina humbled again
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Poland claimed a friendly win over Argentina to inflict a second successive defeat on their South American opponents.

After slipping to a 4-1 loss against Nigeria in midweek, Argentina were hoping to recover their form in Warsaw but came unstuck again to goals from Adrian Mierzejewski and Pawel Brozek.

The visitors replied through Marco Ruben, but too many defensive mistakes proved costly for a young side missing key names such as Lionel Messi, Javier Mascherano, Javier Pastore, Carlos Tevez and Gonzalo Higuain.

Mierzejewski opened the scoring for Franciszek Smuda's side in the 25th minute. The midfielder picked up the ball in the box and fired home a left-footed strike.

Eight minutes later, Nicolas Bertolo created Argentina's first real chance when he teed up Ruben, who managed to get in a shot but saw Rafal Murawski save very close to the goal line.

Argentina coach Sergio Batista made three substitutions at the start of the second half, with Emiliano Insua, Fernando Belluschi and Jonathan Bottinelli coming on for Federico Fazio, Pablo Zabaleta and Bertolo.

The visitors responded immediately to the changes and Ruben equalised within a minute of the restart following a nice assist by Pablo Piatti with his heel.

However, in the 67th minute, substitute Brozek, who had replaced Kamil Grosicki 12 minutes earlier, scored what proved to be the winner following an assist from Jakub Blaszczykowski.

It was another disappointing result for Argentina in their preparations for next month's Copa America, which they host.

Their final warm-up game will be against Albania on June 20, while Poland take on France in Warsaw on Thursday.