Argentina captain Lionel Messi affirmed that he knew facing Cape Verde in the Round of 32 of the World Cup would be "a very difficult match," in a game where the world champions had to go into extra time before clinching a 3-2 victory after the extension.
Messi stated in mixed zone comments, after being named Man of the Match for scoring one goal and assisting another: "We knew it would be a very difficult match. They hadn’t lost yet. We thought we had done the hardest part, which was scoring the first goal, and then we thought things would get easier, that we would find our rhythm and play comfortably, but we lost control of the ball, conceded a goal, and we didn’t position ourselves well, they took advantage of that with their weapons."
He added: "In such knockout matches, nobody gives you anything. We knew in advance it wouldn’t be easy at all, and that’s what makes this World Cup unique, everything is balanced and tough, and all matches will be very complicated."
He continued: "The most important thing now is to rest, think about what’s coming up, and try to extract the positives from today’s match. Today we had the ball without turning it into goals, while in recent times we had been good at exploiting possession. Their defense caused us problems, and we couldn’t press them well."
Messi praised the performance of the opposing team: "They were keeping the ball and circulating it well, while we failed to pressure them as we should have."
For his part, Argentine midfielder Leandro Paredes acknowledged the difficulty of the match: "We always like to show our best, but when that’s not possible, we have to play such matches and fight as well, that’s part of the game."