Argentina star Lionel Messi says that his team’s narrow 2-1 win over Bosnia Hercegovina in their World Cup opener was down to nerves at making their debut in the 2014 World Cup, and praised their opponents for putting up such a good showing at the Maracana last night.
The Barcelona playmaker, who scored an outrageous second for the South Americans, told reporters after the game: “It’s normal to have indecsions. It was the first game; we were nervous, anxious.”
“The most important thing is to win and we did that. Bosnia are a good team and we still have things to improve.”
“We let them play in the first half and gave the ball away and it was very difficult to get to their goal because we were far, far away.”
A bumper crowd housed thousands of Argentine supporters in Rio de Janeiro and Messi added: “It was amazing how people cheered for us. We know it will be so also in Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre. We must continue, quiet, toward our dream.”
Argentina are the tournament second favourites behind hosts Brazil and are seen as the biggest challenge to upsetting their neighbours’ bid to win a record sixth world crwon.
