Argentina manager Jorge Sampaoli has been talking about Lionel Messi ahead of the team’s crunch World Cup clash with Nigeria on Tuesday.
Messi was a peripheral figure in the 3-0 defeat to Croatia but Sampaoli says that will not be the case against Nigeria.
“I think that match [against Croatia] was complicated for Leo, the structure of the game didn’t favour him and he didn’t get a lot of balls from the midfield,” he said.
”If he had the ball less than usual it’s because Argentina didn’t dominate the match as we did against Iceland.
”We are going to try and improve that and we are sure that is not going to happen tomorrow.
”For the good of Argentina, I am sure Lionel Messi will be touching the ball a lot more than in our previous match.”
Sampaoli is expected to make changes for the match with the latest reports suggesting he will bring in Franco Armani for Willy Caballero in goal and also start Ever Banega and Gonzalo Higuain.
