Argentina fans see off Lionel Messi and Co ahead of World Cup… but Diego Maradona can’t resist another dig
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LIONEL MESSI and his Argentina team-mates were given a hero's send-off as the team bus departed for the World Cup.
They thumped Haiti 4-0 on Tuesday night in Buenos Aires and have now begun their journey to Russia, stopping off in Israel on the way.
Argentina face Israel in Jerusalem next Saturday in their final warm-up game before attention turns to their first group game against Iceland on June 16.
Messi will captain Argentina for a second consecutive tournament as Argentina also face Croatia and then Nigeria, two days after his 31st birthday.
But amid the hysteria ahead of another World Cup, Diego Maradona did not miss an opportunity to reiterate his view in the ongoing Messi vs Maradona debate in Argentina.
The 57-year-old believes his Argentina side of the 1980s created football and Messi is simply repeating what he has already achieved.
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In an interview with Robert Pires, he said: "All the things that Messi does I did before. We created football, we did it first.";
The World Cup is the one major tournament missing from Messi's extensive trophy cabinet but Maradona led his country to the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, with those goals against England in the quarter-finals.
But despite a 4-0 thumping of Haiti this week, where he netted a hat-trick, and Argentina boasting one of the most talented forward lines of any World Cup squad, Messi does not believe his side will be victorious this summer in Russia.
He said: "We all go to Russia for the same reason, the World Cup is the dream of us, of the country. We are not candidates but we are very good, training and improving day by day.
"We have good players and we are getting stronger to fight as an equal with anyone. In a World Cup, logic is almost never given."
He added: "We have to aim to win the first game, which is the most important because it will give us peace of mind.
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"Let no one have doubts that we are going to try everything, as people always ask us.
"We are going with a great squad that is becoming strong at the team and individual level. We are facing a beautiful possibility and we are looking for that."
Maradona and Messi's relationship has been fractious at best over recent years, especially in 2016 when Maradona appeared to criticise the Barcelona forward's leadership qualities.