SABELLA BACKS MESSI

The Argentina national team manager Alejandro Sabella has said that he is extremely happy with the performance of the Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi for the national team.

After many years of struggling to perform at the national level, despite being one of the best players at club level, Lionel Messi is finally becoming to blossom under the guidance of the manager Alejandro Sabella. He has scored numerous goals for the Argentina national team in the last two years, which have helped them top the World Cup qualification group stages. Argentina are also one of the favourites to lift the World Cup title win the competition is held in Brazil this time around.

The 57-year-old Alejandro Sabella has been able to get the best out of Lionel Messi by changing the formation style of play of the national team in such a way that it reflects Barcelona. At Barcelona, Lionel Messi is the main ingredient whereas all the other players are played in such a way to suit the Argentine superstar. Alejandro Sabella has modified the Argentine national team by making players like Sergio Aguero and Angel di Maria focus on providing the supply for Lionel Messi.

“It is difficult for him to play badly. Now he is playing very well and, besides, he is scoring a lot of goals. When you have a player of Messi's quality it is important he is calm, content and happy. It is a group task," said the Argentina manager. "Chile's recent results have not been the best. They are at the stage where they need points. They have a great team and a great coach, who is very demanding, demands that you are switched on and with a lot of focus on scoring. They attack a lot and we will have to be at our best to get a good result," said Sabella before the Chile match.

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SABELLA PRAISES MESSI

The Argentina national team manager Alejandro Sabella has come out in praise of the Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi by saying that the nation is gifted that the 24-year-old is not a Brazilian.

Lionel Messi has often been described as the greatest player in the world right now, while many even have been comparing him with some of legends of football like Diego Maradona. He was once again at his explosive best in the recent friendly match against archrivals Brazil. The Brazilian national team has been featuring a number of young players in recent matches, and it was the case once again against Argentina.

Lionel Messi managed to score a wonderful hat-trick to help Argentina win the match 4-3 in the end. The 85th minute winner by Lionel Messi proved to be the decisive goal after Brazil had taken the lead in the second half. Argentina has been looking at various ways to bring out the best from the 24 year old Barcelona player.

Lionel Messi performs exceptionally well for the club team, but it has not been the case with the national team. This season, however, Messi has been doing extraordinary magic for the national team as well. He has now scored a remarkable 77 goals in all competitions this season.

"It's a rare moment that we must make the most of. Luckily he's from Argentina and we can enjoy ourselves. Leo is an exceptional talent, better than Cristiano Ronaldo. We don't play like Barcelona, we play more narrow but we still try to maximise his qualities. Talking about the game itself, it could have gone either way. It is very difficult to control a game against a team with such potential as Brazil. They have great attacking firepower. We need to work on our defence though, as this time we conceded three. We must find the right balance and equilibrium," Sabella told Ole.