Sampaoli downplays talk of unrest, vows to get best of Messi
- by Lawrence Kim
- in Sports
- — Jun 26, 2018
First he had a penalty saved by Ali Beiranvand and was later saved by a review as Iran's players called for him to be sent off following an incident with Morteza Pouraliganji.
"We're expecting a very, very tough game and one that I know they're going to want to win", he added.
Argentina's national team, led by captain Lionel Messi, behaved just like that after a chastening 3-0 defeat to Croatia in the World Cup on Thursday.
The maths is simple: if Argentina beat Nigeria and Iceland fail to win against Group D leaders Croatia, they will go through to the last 16.
"Argentina need a big win against Nigeria".
He scored his first World Cup goal to open La Albiceleste's account against Iceland in the opening game, though things have gone down hill for the team since.
A team of five workers at Moscow's Altufyevo Confectionery worked for almost a week to carve the sculpture in 60 kg (132 lbs) of chocolate to mark the Argentina forward's 31st birthday on Sunday.
Despite palpable tension between the players and the coach, Argentina's football association president Claudio Tapia indicated Sunday that Sampaoli isn't going anywhere yet.
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In the wee hours of Friday morning, after their calamitous loss to Croatia, Argentina's World Cup stars reportedly tried to engineer a mutiny.
"He is one of the big names in Russian Federation who has made a strong start to this World Cup, in terms of goals, with four so far".
Albiceleste fans will likely not be worrying about quarter-final opponents with their team in such a dire position, but should they reach that stage of the competition they will play either the Group A victor (Russia or Uruguay) or the Group B runner-up (Portugal or Spain).
They drew their first match 1-1 against Iceland with Messi missing a spot kick that would have seen him put his team in front.
In their hour of need, Argentina need Messi's best once more. When his teammates witness his reaction after a setback, they infer he's lost faith the team, in them. Argentina must not give them space to play their free-flowing game. They all have to take responsibility and play for each other.
If Messi felt comfortable as an off-field leader - and a postgame spokesman for the team - he would have pulled himself together, shrugged off the setback, and said something like, "We'll bounce back from this".
Australia still have a slim chance of progressing if they beat Peru heavily and Denmark lose to France.
