{"id":28747,"date":"2014-07-04T12:32:15","date_gmt":"2014-07-04T11:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=28747"},"modified":"2014-07-04T12:32:15","modified_gmt":"2014-07-04T11:32:15","slug":"dont-blame-messi-if-argentina-fail-maradona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/dont-blame-messi-if-argentina-fail-maradona\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t blame Messi if Argentina fail \u2013 Maradona"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"nrelate_flyout_placeholder\">\n<p>Argentina are playing far below their best, are over-reliant on Lionel Messi and must improve if they are to beat Belgium in their World Cup quarterfinals, according to Diego Maradona,<em>Reuters<\/em>\u00a0reports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe still haven\u2019t got started,\u201d Maradona, who won the 1986 World Cup with Argentina, said in a withering analysis of the team\u2019s performances so far at the tournament in Brazil.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey need to get it into their heads that we can\u2019t be \u2018Sporting Messi\u2019. Maybe he can score a great goal \u2026 but if it doesn\u2019t come off for the kid, we can\u2019t jump on him tomorrow as if he\u2019s guilty of the Argentine disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maradona, Argentina\u2019s coach at the last World Cup where they went out in the quarter-finals, was speaking on Venezuelan TV after Argentina\u2019s defeat of Switzerland this week. His comments were widely reported in Latin American media on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>He said Argentina\u2019s big name team were playing at only 40 percent of their capacity and criticized them for only squeaking past Switzerland 1-0 with a last-gasp goal in extra time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMan-for-man, and collectively, Argentina are better. They (the Swiss) may make good watches but they have few footballers,\u201d Maradona said.<\/p>\n<p>Argentina, who were to train behind closed doors on Thursday at their camp in Belo Horizonte before flying to Brasilia for Saturday\u2019s game versus Belgium, won all three group games before beating the Swiss in the last 16.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Argentina are playing far below their best, are over-reliant on Lionel Messi and must improve if they are to beat Belgium in their World Cup quarterfinals, according to Diego Maradona,Reuters\u00a0reports.&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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