Argentina Captain, Lionel Messi has been ruled out of Tuesday’s international friendly against Nigeria on Tuesday.

The Barcelona striker who played the full 90 minutes of Argentina’s 1-0 victory over Russia on Saturday, explained that coach Jorge  Sampaoli excused him from the upcoming friendly.

‘’Sampaoli decided to rest me a little bit and not play the game against Nigeria,’’ Messi said after the friendly against Russia, according to El Grafico.

‘’We want to get the best way to the World Cup. It’s good to win to continue correcting and improving things, we have to reinforce the game system that Sampaoli wants, we must make the most of the time together.

‘’It is a reality that in the selection there is little time and we have to make the most of it when we are together, reinforce what the coach wants, try to carry out the practices.’’

Sergio Aguero scored a late winner for Argentina as hosts Russia were denied victory in the first match at the renovated Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

Messi tops the Argentina scoring charts and he praised Aguero, who became the all-time leading goalscorer for Manchester City this month, for drawing level with Hernan Crespo in third on the list with his 35th senior international strike.

“It’s important. He came from making a record with City and now he has done it here,” he added.

THE SUN

Comments

comments