Iceland hold Argentina 1-1

Lionel Messi assured everyone after the draw with Iceland (1-1) that his team deserved to win and they still had the same desire to win the World Cup.

However, after Cristiano Ronaldo’s heroics last night against Spain from dead-ball situations, Messi was handed the chance to restore Argentina’s lead with a 64th-minute penalty.

Patrolling midfield will be ex-Liverpool and West Ham star Javier Mascherano and AC’s Lucas Biglia, with Meza and ex-United winger Angel di Maria providing width, City goal machine Sergio Aguero furthest forward and Messi going wherever his muse takes him.

Argentina are clubbed with Croatia, Iceland, Nigeria in Group D. They will play their first match against Iceland at Spartak Stadium, Moscow on Saturday. More normal than going to the World Cup, ” Saevarsson said during a recent shift before he flew to Russian Federation with the Iceland squad, talking to The Associated Press as he fed jars into a machine that slapped them with labels marked: Hand Harvested Lava Salt’. He is only the fourth player since 1966 to take 11 or more shots in a World Cup game and not score.

After falling behind, 1-0, early in the match, Iceland kept its composure and responded soon after, with Alfred Finnbogason scoring his country’s first ever World Cup goal to tie the game.

Messi’s stoppage-time free kick set up perfectly for the Barcelona legend to answer Ronaldo’s heroics. The forward executed a classy spin move to create his chance when a miscued shot by Marcos Rojo arrived at his feet near the penalty spot. “We have to ignore pressure, otherwise we won’t be able to perform as we want to”, he said. “We will keep working to win the net game”.

Croatia weren’t at their best but did not need to be against a disappointing Nigeria team.

“The sensation is one of a certain frustration after we had such high hopes at the start”, said the shaven-headed coach who led Chile to the last 16 at the World Cup in Brazil four years ago.

Don Balon say Messi is already conceding defeat in the battle to be crowned the world’s best player because he reportedly believes Portugal have a better team than Argentina. “So I don’t think it’s going to be his last World Cup”.

“It’s a bad fight because we deserved to win, we were superior to Iceland”.