Diego Maradona has demanded to talk to Argentina’s crushed players in a bid to salvage their World Cup dreams. Lionel Messi and Co are staring a shock early exit in the face after the 1-1 draw with Iceland and shamobolic 3-0 defeat to Croatia.
Blazers striker Ante Rebic rubbed salt into a nation’s open wounds when he said he didn’t swap shirts with Messi because his country were so bad.
And manager Jorge Sampaoli is involved in a bitter war of words with striker Sergio Aguero.
Maradona was reduced to tears as he watched the thumping by Croatia.
And now he appears to have taken matters into his own hands by demanding to speak to the sorry stars.
He said: “I played with my life whenever I got the Argentine shirt. “Legends like Simeone, Redondo, Ruggeri, Canniggia, Filol, Luque and Gallego did exactly the same. “I want to be able to talk to the players and make them understand what it means to wear the national shirt.”
Argentina’s dire performance so far has hit the country hard.
Maradona has already jumped to the fore to defend Messi following his penalty miss against Iceland.
He said: “I missed five penalties in a row and I was still Diego Armando Maradona. “The game and the two points lost by the team are not down to his penalty. “He showed his face and gave everything he had to give. The ‘kid’ did his duty.
“Seeing him on the field, he was pretty p****d off. Just like I would have been. “It was all him, he always had to shrug two players off and when he did, there was no pass open.”
