Argentina, which plays in Group D, will be playing against Croatia and Nigeria next.
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Argentina team to face Iceland: Willy Caballero, Eduardo Salvio, Nicolas Otamendi, Marcos Rojo, Nicolas Tagliafico, Lucas Biglia, Javier Mascherano, Maximiliano Meza, Lionel Messi, Angel di Maria, Sergio Aguero. On Messi’s retirement, Sampaoli insisted, “It won’t be Messi’s last World Cup”.
It would be sad to see another round of heartbreak for Messi this summer, though, who just can’t seem to get any luck on the global stage.
“To evaluate and characterise Lionel Messi’s work is hard because it was an uncomfortable match for him”, Sampaoli said.
Ian Wright was shell-shocked…
A penalty from Real Madrid star Luka Modric and an own goal from Oghenekaro Etebo secured the points for the Croatians in Kaliningrad, sending them to the top of the standings.
On a remarkable day of five penalties during Saturday’s matches, Peru’s Christian Cueva then repeated Messi’s failure, arguably even upstaging it by skying his penalty high over the bar in a game Denmark went on to win 1-0.
“In the Argentina against Iceland game we saw just how much Messi needed the warm up game against Israel”, Liberman tweeted after Messi missed yet another penalty kick and Iceland held on for a 1-1 draw against Argentina in an impressive World Cup debut on Saturday.
Two years after reaching the quarterfinals at the European Championship, Iceland earned its first point in its first World Cup match, holding two-time champion Argentina to a surprising 1-1 draw.
At that moment, commentators from around the world marked the moment with poetic remarks, but one commentator has received a lot more attention than he will have expected.
Iceland plays in Group D with Lionel Messi’s Argentina. “I am convinced Argentina will show we are one of the best teams in the world”, he said.
The situation certainly isn’t helped by the teammates around him who, although not exactly poor, are no Barcelona. “So we are a nightmare to play against and we can beat anybody when we have our day”. Have your say in the comments section below.
When the match got underway, Argentina endured a subdued start to the game; Messi’s first shot on target after 15 minutes was beaten away by Hannes Halldórsson.
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Maradona would have no doubt been disappointed to see his country draw 1-1 with Iceland during their opening game in Russian Federation, but after this incident he may have greater concerns.
