Argentina's Hernan Crespo (r) celebrates with teammate Diego Simeone after Crespo scored his goal against Bolivia. (Reuters)

Bolivia were leading 3-1 after Lider Paz, Percy Colque and Joaquin Botero all scored their first international goals.

But Hernan Crespo pulled one back in the 89th minute with his seventh goal of the competition and second of the match and Brazil-based Juan Pablo Sorin equalised in the second minute of injury time.

Argentine remained top of the South American group with 29 points, while Bolivia stayed ninth with 10 points. Crespo joined Brazil's Romario and Ecuador's Agustin Delgado as top scorer in the competition.

For most of the game, Argentine looked as if they would be beaten by FIFA rules which allow visiting teams no time to adapt to the difficulties of playing at the world's highest international stadium.

Diego Simeone, Claudio Lopez, Juan Sebastian Veron and Crespo were subjected to an absurd marathon before the game and were due to face another one afterwards.

They played for Lazio in an Italian championship match on Sunday, flew overnight to Argentina, trained in Buenos Aires on Monday, flew to Santa Cruz in Bolivia on Tuesday with the team and arrived in La Paz two hours before the game.

It is general accepted that 21 days are needed to acclimatise fully to conditions in La Paz.

In particular, Veron and Simeone, two players who give their all for the country, could barely walk during the second half. The Lazio quartet were due to rush back to Italy immediately after the game for another domestic game at the weekend.

Argentina held out for 40 minutes until Luis Gatty Ribeiro reached the byline and crossed to the far post where Paz, one of three unmarked Bolivian strikers, headed in from close range. Paz had had a goal disallowed only five minutes before.

Argentina took only three minutes to equalise when Crespo swept the ball in from six metres after a corner had evaded the entire Bolivian defence.

But another Argentine lapse allowed Bolivia to get back in front 10 minutes into the second half. Botero floated the ball across from the far right and Colque sneaked in behind a static Veron to volley the ball from close range.

A Bolivia win looked certain when Botero rose above a static defence to head the third in the 81st minute.

But Crespo pulled a goal back with a long-range shot which caught Bolivia goalkeeper Jose Carlos Fernandez dozing and Sorin equalised following a free-kick taken by Veron.