With Lionel Messi still sidelined, the Albiceleste were put to the sword by Spain, with Isco’s hat trick leading La Roja to a dominant 6-1 victory.
The defeat was the joint-largest for Argentina in their history, with the South American side also having suffered 6-1 losses at the hands of Czechoslovakia at the 1958 World Cup and Bolivia during qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.
Argentina also suffered a 5-0 loss to Colombia in 1993.
While the loss was a massive blow to Argentina, it was a fantastic result for Spain, who had never before beaten a World Cup winning country by such a lopsided scoreline.
The made was made even more impressive by the fact that Spain scored six times with just six shots on target.
It was also a banner day for Isco, who netted his first hat trick for Spain, and the first for the side since a match in 2013 that saw both David Villa and Fernando Torres net hat tricks in a 10-0 win over Tahiti in the Confederations Cup.
Despite Tuesday’s defeat and a massive struggle with qualifying for Russia, Argentina will still be favoured to get out of Group D at this summer’s tournament having been drawn against Nigeria, Iceland and Croatia.
