Argentina continue World Cup preparations with win over Honduras in friendly

Argentina created the opening opportunity of the match in the seventh minute when Giuliano Simeone forced Edrick Menjivar into a full-length save, before the Atletico Madrid man soon turned provider, picking out Lautaro Martinez whose diving header was gathered.

Honduras then enjoyed a brief dominant spell during which they had Argentina on the back foot, culminating in a chance for Edwin Rodriguez, but he could not keep his fierce effort down.

The contest settled into a quiet period midway through the first half but burst back into life ten minutes before the break. Giovani Lo Celso's curling effort crashed back off the crossbar and as players challenged for the loose ball, Christopher Melendez collided with Nicolas Tagliafico, resulting in a penalty being awarded. Martinez stepped up and the Inter Milan forward calmly dispatched the spot kick low into the corner. That gave La Albiceleste a lead they almost doubled on the stroke of half-time, only for Menjivar to react well and keep out Simeone's clever back-heel from Lo Celso's cutback.

Lionel Scaloni's side were quick out of the blocks after the restart and got the goal their dominance deserved nine minutes in. Martinez was involved once more as he latched onto Thiago Almada's through ball and deftly back-heeled into the path of Simeone, who finished well. Honduras were defending desperately and only a goal-line clearance from Denil Maldonado kept half-time substitute Facundo Medina's header out.

With both managers making numerous changes as the game progressed, momentum was lost and the match fizzled out somewhat. Tomas Aranda forced a good save late on from replacement goalkeeper Luis Ortiz before Cristian Romero headed the resulting corner over. However, the reigning World Cup and Copa America champions saw out the victory and they will face Iceland on Tuesday in a final tune-up before the real thing gets under way ten days from now against Algeria.