Lionel Messi may make his final World Cup appearance on Friday night - but still finds himself at the centre of pre-match mind games.
The Paris Saint-Germain superstar was the subject of claim and counter-claim as the two coaches traded verbal blows in the phoney war. Asked about how he planned to stop the 35-year-old, Dutch coach Louis van Gaal said: "We’re not going to reveal any plans to you - it would be pretty stupid of us to do so.
"But it’s not that difficult to come up with an answer as to how to stop him. You might want to block and close the passing lines. I can’t see this creating too much of a hoo-ha."
But Argentine boss Lionel Scaloni wasn’t taking Van Gaal’s comments at face-value. The question of how to prevent Messi from exerting influence over games has troubled every top coach on the planet during the past 15 years.
And, when quizzed, Scaloni took the opportunity to put up his own smokescreen. He said: "We’ll see what happens with Lionel tomorrow. We’re used to our opponents coming up with something different. We don’t want to jump to foregone conclusions.
"We might come up with a few tactical differences of our own. We have certain nuances. We can do something different to hurt them. And if they decide to man-mark Lionel, we’ll keep it in mind, too."
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Getty Images)Messi’s team-mate - Brighton talent Alexis Mac Allister - asked to single out his star of the tournament so far, reported that ‘the Flea’ was looking good. He said: "I should say Messi. He’s been doing unbelievable stuff, both in training and in matches. He’s feeling fine, he’s happy - and that can only be good for us."
Rumours were rife that the two-time champions had been hit with an injury blow after influential midfielder Rodrigo De Paul had suffered a hamstring strain. However, former West Ham defender Scaloni was eager to cast that into doubt while also revealing that Juventus star Angel di Maria was inching close to recovery after overcoming a muscle problem in his left leg.
He said: "I don’t know where this has come from that there’s something going on with Rodrigo. He’s feeling well. We trained behind-closed-doors so I don’t know what’s going on. Some players train in private after a game. He trained - and Di Maria also trained."
Scaloni admitted that Friday night's clash will be one of fine margins. He said: "There are eight teams in the quarter-finals and any one of them could be playing in the final. It’s very close. A very thin line.
"We think there are eight evenly-matched teams out there. They’ve all earned the right to be there. I hope our people enjoy the game. We will break our backs for the country.
"But this is sport and I really hope we are happy at the final whistle. If it isn’t a positive result, I hope our people can identify with these players and what they’ve done."
