Lionel Messi watched from the stands as Argentina began their World Cup build-up with a lacklustre 2-0 win over Italy at the Etihad Stadium. Éver Banega and Manuel Lanzini struck in the latter stages to put some gloss on an otherwise underwhelming performance.

Messi, the chief attraction for the majority in attendance at Manchester City’s half-full stadium, did not feature and sat up high alongside another missing attraction in the injured Sergio Agüero.

The game did liven up in the second half but neither side over-exerted themselves.

Italy, looking to rebuild after their failure to qualify for Russia 2018 and in the interim care of Luigi Di Biagio, threatened only in flashes and their best player was arguably the veteran goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon.

Those present included Wayne Rooney but the atmosphere was deflated before kick-off when it was announced Messi was not in the starting line-up. The five-time world player of the year was named among 13 substitutes but unbeknown to many in the stadium, there was no chance of him featuring.

City fans instead had to make do with the presence of Nicolás Otamendi in the Argentina defence, while behind him the former City back-up goalkeeper Willy Caballero made his international debut.

Otamendi had one of the first serious chances of the game, heading straight at Buffon, who was winning his 176th cap after reversing a decision to retire from international football. Ángel Di María also shot at the Juventus No1 in a lively start but that pace soon dropped.

The rest of the first half was played at a crawl, with Argentina creating opportunities before the interval for Leandro Paredes, Nicolás Tagliafico and Gonzalo Higuaín. The last two were saved by Buffon, the 40-year-old backing up his claims he is still the best man for the job despite calls for him to stand aside.

Lorenzo Insigne sliced wide for Italy when he should have scored early in the second half and Lanzini headed over for Argentina.

It was not long before the crowd began to entertain themselves with Mexican waves which briefly lifted the atmosphere but the chants for Messi to come on were wasted.

Caballero boosted his World Cup chances with good saves from Antonio Candreva and Insigne before Banega struck with a sweet left-foot shot after 75 minutes. Lanzini then beat Buffon with a fine curling effort to wrap up victory 10 minutes later.

While the 20-year-olds Federico Chiesa and Patrick Cutrone made their debuts for Italy, much of Di Biagio’s line-up consisted of veterans held over from the qualifying campaign.

During the singing of the national anthems, each member of Italy’s squad wore the No 13 shirt of the Fiorentina defender Davide Astori, who was found dead in his hotel room this month after a suspected cardiac arrest. They also wore black armbands and a moment of silence was observed in their former national team-mate’s memory before kick-off.

Argentina face Spain in Madrid on Tuesday at Atlético Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano while Italy will face England at Wembley.