Diego Maradona has heavily criticised Argentina manager Jorge Sampaoli after the 1-1 draw against Iceland on Saturday.
The Argentines could only pick up one point against the World Cup debutants as their campaign didn’t start in the way many expected.
The former World Cup winner was therefore not happy for Sampaoli’s tactics and came out all guns blazing.
“If he carries on like this, Sampaoli can’t come back to Argentina,” he said. “His game plan was a disgrace. Even though the Iceland players average 1.90m in height, we played all our corners into the air. We had no short game.
“I don’t blame the players. I blame a lack of preparation because there obviously hasn’t been any,” said the 1986 World Cup winner.
Lionel Messi missed a decisive penalty.
“You can bring 25 brilliant players with you, but you have to work with them. We can see that Iceland were better drilled than Argentina and that is a massive shame.”
Captain Lionel Messi‘s penalty miss turned out to be decisive, but Maradona didn’t put the blame on him and instead realises how much impact he had on the game.
“It was extraordinary to see an Argentina without any answers, keeping their heads down, struggling to play accurate passes or one-twos,” he said.
“Messi was their only outlet. There is serious trouble ahead because Nigeria have experience, they know how to counter-attack and they know how to score.”
