Argentina legend Diego Maradona says the team’s draw with Iceland was a “disgrace” and warned manager Jorge Sampaoli “he can’t come back to Argentina” playing like that.<\/p>\n
Lionel Messi missed a penalty as his side were surprisingly held by debutants Iceland in their opening Group D game on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Maradona, a former national team coach, watched on at the Spartak Stadium. “I get the feeling there’s an anger at the heart of the team,” he said.<\/p>\n
Argentina took the lead through Sergio Aguero in the 19th minute but Iceland, playing at their first ever finals, levelled four minutes later through Alfred Finnbogason.<\/p>\n
“It’s a disgrace. Not having prepared for the match knowing that Iceland are all 1.90m tall,” the 1986 World Cup winner told Venezuelan television.<\/p>\n
‘The pressure is now on Messi’ – relentless Ronaldo lights up World Cup
\nMessi was looking to match the impact his old rival Cristiano Ronaldo has made on the tournament – the Portuguese scored a sensational hat-trick against Spain on Friday night.<\/p>\n
But his 63rd-minute spot kick was saved by Hannes Halldorsson and he struggled to break down a well-organised Iceland defence.<\/p>\n
“I don’t blame the players. I could blame the lack of work rate. But I can’t blame the players, much less Messi, who gave it all he had,” said Maradona.<\/p>\n
“I missed five penalties on the spin and I was still Diego Armando Maradona. I don’t think that they dropped two points because Messi missed a penalty,” added the 57-year-old, who led Argentina to the quarter-finals in South Africa in 2010.<\/p>\n
Argentina play Croatia in their next game in Saint Petersburg on 21 June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Argentina legend Diego Maradona says the team’s draw with Iceland was a “disgrace” and warned manager Jorge Sampaoli “he can’t come back to Argentina” playing like that. Lionel Messi missed a penalty as his side were surprisingly held by debutants Iceland in their opening Group D game on Saturday. Maradona, a former national team coach, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":85669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2,5],"tags":[3831,11772,30457,44443,626],"yoast_head":"\n