Nicolas Otamendi saved Argentina's blushes as they beat Venezuela 1-0 at the Salt Stadium in Calcutta on Friday night.
The humidity and travel from South America clearly affected both sides, who were sweating profusely even when West Bengal Governor MK Narayanan and other dignitaries like AIFF President Praful Patel met the two teams ahead of the kick-off.
The victory marked Argentina's most narrow victory over South America's traditional whipping boys, Venezuela, as they had never failed to beat them by a margin of two goals before.
It was a frustrating first-half for Argentina, as Venezuelan custodian Rafael kept his side in the game, denying Angel Di Maria and Gonzalo Higuain time and time again.
The fans in the Salt Stadium, who endured three hour traffic jams prior to the game, were clearly there to see Lionel Messi though, and grew frustrated as La Albiceleste's captain kept being denied time and space to play as freely as he does for Barcelona by a wary Venezuela defence.
In the first twenty minutes, Messi created three clear chances for Argentina. First, running from one end of the box to the other; the next time with a deft touch catching the rival defence on the wrong foot; and then -- all by himself but failing to get the elevation after getting past three or maybe four; Angel di Maria and Lucho Gonzalez providing him the perfect foil.
The boys in white and blue were not to be denied, though, as they came out on the pitch in the second half determined to break the deadlock.
Roberto Gonzales came close in the 60th minute, but Argentina needed to be careful as the Venezuelan wingers aimed for quick counter attacks, looking ominiously threatening, and almost catching Argentina on the wrong foot a couple of times, with Frank Feltscher and Cesar Gonzalez almost scoring off a counter-attack.
The groans of the crowd grew as even Messi himself grew frustrated, as he came close with a swerving free-kick in the 62nd minute that had all standing in awe, but the ball fizzed narrowly past the right corner.
Argentina were not to be denied though, and their play finally broke the Venezuelan defence as Messi floated in a cross that was gleefully headed into the top left corner by Otamendi to settle the contest.
The first-ever FIFA international friendly then petered out as both sides made substitutions to close out the game.
Otamendi was rewarded with the Man of the Match trophy to celebrate his match-winning goal.
Argentina: Sergio Romero, Martin Demichelis, pablo Zabaleta, Marcos Rojo, Nicolas Otamendi, Javier Mascherano, Angel Di Maria, Ricardo Alvarez (Javier Pastore -61st), Lucho Gonzalez (Jose Sosa - 68th), Lionel Messi (Captain), Gonzalo Higuain (Sergei Aguero - 74th).
Venezuela: Rafael Romo, Fernando Amorebieta, Oswaldo Vizcarrondo, Angel Flores, Gabriel Cichero, Nicolas Fedor, Tomas Rincon (Captain), Frank Feltscher (Yohandry Orozco - 68th minute), Csar Gonzlez, Roberto Rosales, Jose Salomon Rondon.
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