FIFA World Cup
World Cup 2018: Maradona Slams Sampaoli Calls Him Disgrace
In his own unique way, Diego Armando Maradona has come out to defend Lionel Messi by calling Jorge Sampaoli’s strategy against Iceland a disgrace. The legendary player didn’t stop there and also warmed Sampaoli that “he can’t come back to Argentina” playing like that.
Unfortunately, for Argentina, everyone had them as heavy favorites against the debuting Iceland. However, no one predicted a draw. To make things worst, Messi missed a penalty that would had given given his side the lead and perhaps the three points.
Moreover, Maradona added “I get the feeling there’s an anger at the heart of the team,” he said.
“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.
“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.
“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.
Maradona led Argentina to the quarterfinals as a manager in South Africa 2010. He also won a World Cup for Argentina in Mexico 1986 against Germany and subsequently loss the championship to the same team in Italy 1990.
Argentina play Croatia on Thursday, June 21 in Saint Petersburg. They will close their group stage against the Black Eagles of Nigeria.
