West Ham defender, Pablo Zabaleta, who used to play for the Argentine national team has reacted to his team’s loss to Croatia last night saying that the person he felt sorry for the most was Lionel Messi.
Argentina turned in a dismal performance against a hungrier Croatian side who ran out 3-0 winners of the tie and sent themselves to the second round with a game to spare.
Speaking to the BBC, Zabaleta said; “I just feel so sorry for Lionel Messi,”
“This was his last chance to win something with Argentina – so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him retire from international football after this.
“He’ll be so disappointed and it’s another four years until Qatar.”
Zabaleta added that the whole of Argentina was mad after the loss which sees them on the brink of a group stage exit from the World Cup after making it to the finals of the last edition of the competition.
He added: “The people in Argentina will be so angry now. You expect more from those players.
“They were so close to winning it in Brazil then they lost two Copa Americas in a row.
“The people in Argentina are so hungry for this World Cup, and they will not accept this.
“The manager has to sit with the players and have a real conversation about what’s going on.
“I’ve never seen a performance like this by Argentina. Never before. There was a lack of spirit and it’s very strange to see.
“In the second half we weren’t good enough. I think after the Willy Caballero mistake it was mentally very difficult for the players to come back and win the game.
“All Argentina’s players play for big clubs – they should have done much, much better.
“I’ve never seen Nicolas Otamendi look so uncomfortable in a game – he was making all sorts of mistakes – at Manchester City you never see him miss a pass.
“And Marcos Rojo has been playing for Manchester United – in a back three – so I can’t see why he was left out today.”