Argentina's soccer players join in the celebration for the sixth goal against Serbia and Montenegro during the second round match of World Cup 2006 Group C in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, yesterday. Argentina won the match 6-0. -Xinhua

Thanks to remarkable moves from the star-combinations and Maxi Rodriguez's double in particular, favorites Argentina proved themselves irresistible as the Albiceleste flipped to a 6-0 victory against Serbia and Montenegro under the closed roof of the Auf Schalke Arena in Gelsenkirchen yesterday.

"I cannot remember when we last played as well," said coach Jose Pekerman. "We were on a roll after first two goals and it is clear we have a great team. It couldn't have gone better but we're full of confidence and looking forward now."

With the victory, Argentina, who beat Cote d'Ivoire 2-1 in their World Cup opening match last weekend, have been put in sight of the last 16 from Group C, labelled 'The Group of Death' by pundits.

Serbia and Montenegro, however, faced an early exit from the tournament as the 1-0 opening loss to the Dutch had left them needing something of a miraculous recovery from the match against Argentina.

The Serbs seemed doomed in 65 minutes to face the prospect of dealing with a rampant Argentina with just 10 men after Mateja Kezman was shown a straight red for a two-footed challenge on Javier Mascherano.

Rodriguez opened the scoring in just 6 minutes after Juan Pablo Sorin capped a flowing left-flank move by feeding Javier Saviola for a neat pass inside, enabling the Atletico Madrid midfielder Rodrigues to thump a first-time right-footer beyond Dragoslav Jevric.

Twenty-five minutes later, subsititute Esteban Cambiasso improved the board to 2-0 after the midfielder, who replaced injured Luis Gonzalez at 17, launched a rising shot to round off amagnificent one-touch move.

Rodriguez then scored his second on the 41st minute as he back sticked to a lose ball from Jeric, which Hernan Crespo failed to reach, and sidefooted it in from a narrow angle.

On the 78th minute, substitute Lionel Messi, who came off the bench to make his World Cup debut after recovering from a lengthy thigh injury and shaking off another new injury worry, was founded by a quick free-kick from Juan Roman while waiting on the left wing, and delivered a low cross to Hernan Crespo, who lobbed in to add more gloss to an already outstanding Argentine performance.

But it's far from the end for the South American powerhouse. Substitute forward Carlos Tevez skipped past two Serb defenders and conjured the wonderful lone goal into the bottom right-hand corner at 84 on his World Cup debut.

And Messi stretched Argentina's lead even further with two minutes remaining as the Barcelona striker, 18, pounced the ball past Jevric after being feeded by Tevez after some wonderful build-up play from Hernan Crespo, Carlos Tevez and Lionel Messi.

Rodriguez insisted Argentina must focus immediately on their next game. He said: "It was an incredible performance. But we have to win our next game too and top the group."

Tevez praised a great team performance for the 6-0 thrashing match.

"When the team pulls together like that you get results," he said. "It was really nice to see the combination play. It is an honour to play with so many great players."

Meanwhile Cambiasso warned there was more to come from the side.

"This is a very good group," he said. "But this team is solid. It couldn't have gone better but we're full of confidence and looking forward now."

Serbian coach Ilija Petkovic has criticised the media for putting his team under pressure ahead of the crunch Group C match.

"Argentina was better in all areas...We played under enormous pressure, which was created by the Serbian press. They said the first game was played too defensively and cowardly criticisesd me for the way we played," said Petkovic. "I made the mistake not to trust my intuition and experience."

"It is hard for me to appreciate that the results today were the worst in the history of the Serbian team. I am not hiding from the truth: It is my fault, and not the fault of my players."

His players prefered to pin hopes on the final game in group against Cote d'Iviore to keep their head high.

"Our visa at the World cup has run out and we can go home. Now we want to get at least a point in the last game," said Albert Nadj, who was replaced by Ivan Ergic right after the break.

We were missing two important defenders today and couldn't compensate for that," said star veteran Savo Milosevic. "Argentinawas really well organized. That's their strength."

Serbian defender Ognjen Koroman, who kept bringing players downjust outside his penalty area and giving away some dangerous free-kicks, was cautioned in the early part of Friday's game and will miss the Serbs' next game against Cote d'Ivoire.

The Eastern European team have lost their tough tackling defender Nemanja Vidic for the entire World Cup Finals after the 25-year-old of Manchester United, who already missed the Serbs' opening match against Netherlands, picking up knee ligament damage in Monday's training.

The bad news leave Serbia and Montenegro's World Cup bid in tatters. They are now left with a 21-man squad following Dusan Petkovic's withdrawal from the squad.