Fifa World Cup: Messi, Argentina try to avoid World Cup upset against Australia
- Socceroos coach says his squad heads into their crucial match against Argentina with ‘all guns blazing’
- Harry Souttar, who has been outstanding in Australia’s last two games says shutting down Messi would be a tall order
Australia coach Graham Arnold has promised Argentina a war when the Socceroos look to spring an upset for the ages in the last 16 of the World Cup.
With a blend of team spirit and dogged determination, Arnold’s unheralded underdogs have already notched up victories over Tunisia and Denmark in Qatar to reach the knockout stages for only the second time.
Arnold said they were not finished yet and would be in Argentina’s faces for 90 minutes to try and give the South Americans as little time on the ball as possible.
“No disrespect to Argentina or anything at all, but it’s 11 v 11, and it’s 10 blue shirts against 10 yellow shirts, and it’s a battle,” he told a news conference on Friday.
“It’s a war, and we’ve got to fight that and make sure that the boys are in great physical shape, great mental shape, they’ve got great energy, and we go out there and give it all guns blazing.”
Arnold, who as a player in 1993 came out on the wrong end of a two-legged World Cup playoff against an Argentina side featuring Maradona, said playing the twice champions was a big plus in terms of motivation.