Lionel Messi takes centre stage in the World Cup tonight, facing Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Maracana with dreams of returning to the stadium for the final in four weeks’ time.
Argentina arrive in Rio with expectations running high, not least that Messi will produce the kind of displays that were absent in South Africa four years ago.
Diego Maradona is among those who believes that his injury-enforced break for three months last season should benefit Argentina, who are playing in the heartland of Brazil, their neighbours and most bitter rivals.
“I see Messi doing well. I think it was good for him to have a proper rest because he had gone four years hardly missing a match,” Maradona said in Buenos Aires newspaper Ole.
“I’d really like to speak to him now, and tell him to take things easy, not to listen to the idiots. There are a lot of them, unfortunately.”
Argentina have a wonderfully talented attack, so much so that coach Alejandro Sabella could afford to leave Carlos Tevez out of his squad – but there are still question marks at the back, something readily admitted by Maradona, coach in 2010.
He said: “We are looking good in attack but I am a bit worried about the defence, to be honest.
“But the team has more experience now [than in 2010], and that is very important in the World Cup.”
That attacking strength is however causing a dilemma for coach Sabella.
The coach has admitted that he favours a 5-3-2 formation – but he used a 4-3-3 set-up during the successful qualifying campaign, choosing not to squander his firepower.
However, there have been indications in training this week that he is going to be more conservative against Bosnia, which means Gonzalo Higuain missing out.
Much, of course, will depend on Messi but Bosnia coach Safet Susic insists he has no plans to man-mark the four-times world player of the year.
Susic said: “It is a dilemma for me, but to sacrifice a player just to man-mark Messi…I don’t think it would be good for us.
“I don’t think we have ever played a match having dedicated a player to man-mark a specific opponent, and it’s going to be the same against Argentina.
“Many say that our defence is our weakest point, but I disagree,” added Susic.
“We have bedrock in Emir Spahic, on who we build a back four. On top of that we have one of the best goalkeepers in the world. If I was offered to replace Asmir Begovic with any other keeper out there, I would politely decline.”
