Lionel Messi’s Argentina took on fellow group hopefuls Croatia which saw the South Americans go down to the Europeans in a 3-0 thumping.
The result sees their chances of qualifying for the next stage of the competition slowly slip out of their grasp, as Nigeria need to beat an impressive Iceland to keep Argentina’s hopes truly alive.
The Barcelona star seemed to be far from his usual form, and seemingly let the stress of carrying a nation get to him.
Messi managed his first shot in the 64th minute, after Ante Rebic scored the opening goal of with a volley that would see Croatia into the knockout stages.
Croatian coach Dalic seemed happy with his team’s performance and was vindicated in his decision to send AC Milan striker Kalinic home over his unwillingness to play against Nigeria.
His plan to keep control over the midfield in the game went off without a hitch La Liga stars Ivan Raketic and Luka Modric both added to the goal talley against the Argentinians.
The win leaves Croatia on top of Group D with Argentina currently sitting in third place.
Before the game, a visibly nervous Messi was seen looking focused, yet troubled, as if having a premonition of the games’ outcome.
This will seemingly be the Argentinian hero’s last world cup. He will leave the team he has seemingly let down, but he cannot take all the blame.
Argentinian coach, Sampaio, controversially included older, more experienced players in the team that were not regarded by others to be of national standard.
These inclusions saw Angel di Maria and Ever Banega spend the match on the sideline, with Gonzalo Higuain, Cristian Pavon and Paula Dyabala coming on as substitutes in the 54th, 56th and 68th minutes respectively.
Once again Argentina have failed to make use of a genuinely talented group of players and may have squandered what seems to have been their best chances of a World Cup so far.
While their fate has not been sealed yet, they are definitely up against the wall despite arguably having one of the best squads on paper at the tournament.