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#1 Lionel Messi
The poor form of Lionel Messi has hurt Argentina than anything else in their first two group stage matches. However, he proved that form is temporary and class is permanent by scoring an amazing Goal against Nigeria.
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Argentina will be hoping that their captain carries the good form into the knock out stages. The inclusion of Ever Banega has changed the dynamics of the Argentine side, which saw an increased supply to Messi. If he plays on top of his game, not many teams in the world can stop him from scoring.
Arguably the greatest of all time, Messi will be looking to achieve one thing that has eluded him so far. This could perhaps be the last chance for him to win a trophy with his national team.
Although he found such expectations a little too heavy to handle, the goal against Nigeria is good enough to ease the pressure. Let alone France, no team in the world is going to stop him if what we saw against Nigeria was a come back to his prolific form.
It is never going to be easy for Argentina against a star-studded French team, but all these factors can come together to hand them a hard-fought narrow victory.
