Lionel Messi called for calm and said there is no need for Argentina to go crazy , despite failing to beat Iceland at the World Cup, partly thanks to his painful penalty miss.
Argentina s opening match at Russia 2018 ended in a 1-1 draw in Moscow after Alfred Finnbogason s historic goal cancelled out Sergio Aguero s opener in Saturday s Group D meeting.
Messi was denied by Hannes Thor Halldorsson when he took a second-half spot-kick and he recorded 11 shots in the game without beating Iceland s goalkeeper.
Argentina s captain, a three-time beaten finalist at major tournaments with his country since 2014, does not want to panic after Iceland claimed a major scalp on their World Cup bow.
It was hard for us to break, it s not easy when a rival plays so far back, Messi told reporters.
The penalty was painful, I feel responsible.
We do not have to go crazy, we deserved to win, but we have to improve a lot, now we have to be calm.
13 – Since 1966, only Luigi Riva has attempted more shots in a World Cup game (13 vs both Sweden and Israel in 1970) without scoring than Lionel Messi did today against Iceland (since 1966). Shocker.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe)
Barcelona superstar Messi has now failed to convert four of his last seven penalties for club and country.
But the 30-year-old is ready to look ahead to Argentina s next match, against Croatia on Thursday.
This is just beginning and we knew it would not be easy, Messi said.
It s a bad fight because we deserved to win, we were superior to Iceland.
We have things to improve, we re going to beat Croatia.