Messi admits to stress
Arelieved Lionel Messi admitted the stress at the prospect of crashing out of the World Cup at the group stages was the worst he had ever experienced after Marcus Rojo’s late strike beat Nigeria 2-1 to send Argentina into the last-16.
Messi opened the scoring in Saint Petersburg with his first goal of the tournament, but Victor Moses’ early second-half penalty made it another nervous night for the five-time world Player of the Year and under-fire coach Jorge Sampaoli.
“I don’t remember such suffering,” said Messi when asked if it was the most tense match of his career. “It is a huge joy for everyone for the difficult days we lived after the last defeat. Luckily we achieved our objective.”
Messi’s quest for World Cup glory faces a tougher test on Saturday as Argentina face a highly fancied France side in the last-16.
The Barcelona star will come face to face with club team-mates Samuel Umtiti and Ousmane Dembele and is aware of the improvement needed to make the last eight.
“They are a very complete team. They have top players individually,” added Messi.
“I have team-mates I know very well at the back and up front. It will obviously be very difficult.”
Argentina’s success was accompanied by a good slice of fortune and more controversy over the VAR (video assistant referee) system used to review contentious decisions.
With the score at 1-1, Nigeria thought they should have had a second penalty when Rojo headed the ball on to his arm inside the area. Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir reviewed the incident, but stood by his original decision not to award the spot kick.
“I don’t understand how that wasn’t a penalty, for me it was a clear penalty,” said Nigeria captain John Obi Mikel. “Maybe the referee has given the first one and he doesn’t want to give the second one.” –