<img alt="" src="/imagedata/2010/jun/diego.jpg" align="right" border="2" />Argentina coach Diego Maradona expressed his belief that Barcelona's Argentinian superstar Lionel Messi can emulate his own achievements from 24 years ago. Argentina begin their Group B campaign in Johannesburg today against Nigeria, ironically the team against whom Maradona made his international swansong at the 1994 World Cup. But it is for his exploits in 1986 when he almost single-handedly won the World Cup that Maradona is most remembered and the 49-year-old believes Messi can be every bit as influential this time as he was back then. "I would love to see that, I certainly would appreciate it if he had the same impact on the World Cup as I had in 1986," he said. "But I think behind Lionel there's a whole team that should back him up and he should be the cherry on the cake. "I just wish from the bottom of my heart that Messi gets to showcase his talents and has his best performance of all time." "Messi knows very well that he can make the difference in a match, that he can create goal-scoring possibilities and if it's a very tight match, he can always score in the next one," said Maradona on the eve of the match.

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Argentina coach Diego Maradona expressed his belief that Barcelona's Argentinian superstar Lionel Messi can emulate his own achievements from 24 years ago

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