Jabar Ekspres – Australia national team coach Graham Arnold said that his team has great respect for Lionel Messi, but they will do anything to stop him.
Australia will face the Argentina national team in a friendly match that will take place at the Workers Stadium, Beijing on Thursday (15/6) evening.
“Regarding Lionel Messi, how can you not respect someone who has done what he has done in football?” Graham Arnold told reporters quoted by AFP on Wednesday.
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Arnold will make sure his team does not just focus on stopping Messi, but instead puts on the best performance.
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“Of course we respect him, but at the same time we want to stop him and make sure we focus on the team’s performance, make sure we go out and play properly and perform well against the world champions.”
The two teams have previously met in the round of 16 of the 2022 World Cup, where Messi scored a goal and eliminated the Socceroos with a score of 2-1. Messi and Argentina went on to reach the final before winning the World Cup after beating France.
Arnold, who says Australia have learned from their loss to Argentina in Qatar last winter, has taken a young squad to China after many of their senior players were ruled out through injury.
“We have a younger squad of players here, upcoming players that we are looking at over the next four years to be able to get us through to the next World Cup,” he said.