Argentina need to raise their game and seize their chances to ensure victory over a fast and strong Nigeria side in their final World Cup Group F match, according to coach Alejandro Sabella.
The twice former champions have already qualified for the last 16 but narrow wins against debutants Bosnia and unfancied Iran have been less than convincing for a team who were among the favourites going into the tournament.
Several chances were squandered against Iran before Lionel Messi, who was celebrating his 27th birthday yesterday, grabbed the only goal with a stoppage-time winner.
"I'm worried in the sense we have to improve," Sabella said. "We need to be more mobile, to find spaces and we will see if the match will be different. We are going to meet a team that can play with high potential, switch to attack with ease."
Sabella said he had not yet picked his team because some players - he did not say who - still had injury worries but he added that he would likely play a 4-3-3 formation.
Although Nigeria have also struggled to shine, Sabella said he expected a tough game against the African champions. "I see a fast team attacking swiftly," he said. "They are strong when they get the ball into attack. It is a team that is very fast and that makes you worry. We have seen some surprises but that doesn't mean we will have one tomorrow."
Nigeria are the only side at the tournament who have yet to concede a goal, and asked if Argentina would rely too much on Messi to provide the first, Sabella said: "Every time you have a player like Messi there is a dependence. So we try to reduce this dependence but you are always dependent on a player like that.
"This pressure is normal for a great player. We try to take some weight off his shoulders. We are a team, we have to help each other."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article