WC qualifier: Argentina miss top spot after Bolivia stalemate
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Argentina missed the chance to go top of the South American qualifying table for the 2014 World Cup on Friday, being held 1-1 at home by Bolivia.
The belligerent Bolivians took their first point of the campaign againts Alejandro Sabella's star-studded Argentina which included Barcelona striker Lionel Messi and PSG midfielder Javier Pastore.
Argentina are second, level on points with Uruguay who host Chile later on Friday.
The Argentinians have four points from three games with tailenders Bolivia earning one point thanks to a Marcelo Martins goal in the Monumental Stadium here.
Messi admitted he was feeling "frustrated" after throwing away two points and warned that his side needed to win on Tuesday against Colombia.
"I'm frustrated because we had chances but we didn't have luck, we need to win whatever comes," said world player of the year Messi.
Despite the hosts dominating play early in the hard fought match they were surprised when Martins scored after 55 minutes following an error from Malaga defender Martin Demichelis.
But Napoli striker Ezequiel Lavezzi got the Albiceleste level again four minutes later to the relief of the 30,000 spectators.
Messi admitted his side had again made work more difficult for themselves after a 1-0 defeat against Venezuela last month, following a 4-1 win over Chile.
"The important thing now is to win to make things easier on ourselves and so we can work calmly.We want to find out game and do things well."
"This was very important, Argentina have great players, but they were up against a Bolivia who have worked to improve, unfortunately we didn't get the result we came for even if we did surprise Argentina," said Martin.
"We wanted to take these three points because they were important, but couldn't despite all our efforts," said Argentina defender Clemente Rodriguez.
Argentina play Colombia on Tuesday, while Bolivia take on Venezuela.
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