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DUESSELDORF. — Argentina spoiled the party for world champions Germany by hammering the hosts 4-2 in an international friendly in Duesseldorf on Wednesday night in a repeat of the World Cup final.Manchester United’s record British signing Angel Di Maria scored once and made goals for Sergio Aguero, Erik Lamela and Federico Fernandez as Argentina won their first game since losing to Germany in Brazil.

Andre Schuerrle and Mario Goetze replied but Germany were brought crashing down to earth by a ruthless Argentina display in what was Gerardo Martino’s first match in charge of the South Americans.

“They were missing a lot of players and also had three players who retired,” said Martino, who left the Barcelona job after just one season at the end of the last campaign as they ended without a trophy.

“That’s not easy to try to find a new team. Di Maria was more prominent than he was in the World Cup.”

His German counterpart Joachim Loew refuted suggestions that Argentina had avenged the defeat in the final.

“It can’t be revenge. You can’t repeat the final,” said Loew.

“I can’t actually fault the team because they have never played like that together before. Some players aren’t in form.”

Wayne Rooney admits England will have to improve on their lacklustre performance against Norway if they are to avoid a dispiriting start to their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign in Switzerland.

Rooney marked his first game as England’s permanent captain with the winning goal as he drove home an 68th minute penalty to seal a 1-0 victory over Norway in Wednesday’s friendly.

But that was virtually the Manchester United striker’s only memorable contribution to a desultory England display in front of a sullen crowd at half-empty Wembley for the team’s return to action after their miserable World Cup campaign.

“Yeah, we have to (step it up). We know Switzerland are a good team,” Rooney said.

“We know we have to be better than we were tonight to get a good result against a good team like Switzerland. We have four days to prepare. We will work hard to prepare and we’ll be ready. Hopefully we can come back with a victory

“It was a big game for us coming back after such a disappointment at the World Cup. It was important to get the victory,” Rooney said.

“Norway came and made it difficult for us. We played some good stuff in the first half and were unlucky not to get the goal.

“We were sloppy at the start of the second half and we were disappointed with that. We had to be patient and keep moving the ball but we had to do it at a high tempo. We said that before the match.

“At times we did that well and at times we could do it better. We are happy with the win but we know we can play better. We have to move on.” — AFP