World Cup 2014: The tournament starts now for Argentina and Messi

Argentina, led by Lionel Messi, can only get better from here

Argentina may have stuttered their way to three narrow group wins before needing extra-time to beat Switzerland in the last-16 but Jonathan Wilson expects them, and Lionel Messi, to improve from the quarter-finals onwards, just like they did in 1986 when Diego Mardonna stole the show...

A bounce inside and Lionel Messi took possession. For once, Valon Behrami was nowhere near him. Messi had space. He accelerated, shoulders hunching over the ball. Fabian Schaar came to him. Messi shaped left and went right. Two defenders, panicking, came towards him. Angel Di Maria, bursting through on the right, was left in space. Messi shovelled the ball into his path and the Real Madrid midfielder scored with a low first time shot to end Switzerland's dogged resistance.

Messi's World Cup? It's increasingly beginning to feel like it.

Yet again, Argentina had been poor. Yet again, they were saved by a moment of genius from their number 10.

It had, in truth, been a drab game on a bright afternoon, the lushness of the spectacle out of keeping with the football. Argentina had toiled. They'd put in cross after cross. With the Swiss sitting deep, they'd had shot after shot from range. There was a sense, even before the end of normal time, that Argentina had run out of ideas.

Messi had endured a strange game. No outfielder ran less than him, no outfielder looked more dangerous than him. It was as though he'd determined he would have a decisive impact late. There was one shimmying run towards the end of normal time from out on the left that ended in a low shot from the edge of the box and a fine save to his right from Diego Benaglio. Other than that, Switzerland had closed him down superbly.

"I said we could only keep him quiet if we were all together, if we had three or four players around Messi," said the Switzerland coach Otmar Hitzfeld. "So I must compliment the entire team. But we know that Messi in one second can decide a match, he has sufficient quality for that - we shut him out but then a pass to Di Maria and a marvellous shot..."

The comparison, of course, is with Diego Maradona in 1986, who didn't quite single-handedly lead Argentina to glory, but had a key role in every game.

There is even a strange sense of Messi playing in quotations. The shape of the winner against Switzerland echoed that of Jorge Burrachaga's winner in the final against West Germany in 1986, set up, of course, by Maradona. Similarly the way panicking defenders converged on him was redolent of Brazil's convergence on Maradona in 1990 as he laid in Claudio Caniggia to score the winner.

Alejandro Sabella, the Argentina coach, is clearly aware of the similarities, but would say only that "Maradona was important then, Messi is important now."

That said, it was only really from the quarter-final onwards that Maradona and Argentina got going in 1986. It's easy to forget that at this stage of a tournament that the champions often take time to play their way into form. Very few teams dominate from the first game to the last and, that perhaps is encouragement for Argentina. They still have improvement to come; they could and should get better. That isn't necessarily true of the other favourites.

Brazil have major defensive problems behind the full-backs. Germany have been a shambles at the back of midfield, although bringing in Sami Khedira and shifting Philipp Lahm to right-back may help. The Dutch have three times had to come from behind and will find it difficult to cover for the loss of Nigel De Jong at he back of midfield. France have fasted after a superb start.

In a sense, Argentina's job is easier than anybody else's: keep it tight and create space for Messi. That will become far easier as and when Gonzalo Higuain returns to fitness, and Ezequiel Lavezzi gains match sharpness. While Sergio Aguero will not be at 100% in this tournament, he could return to be a useful asset from the bench. Winning, as Sabella said, is the most important thing at this stage: the key is to play well in the final, not the las-16.

Recommended Bet
Back Argentina @ 5.79/2 to win the World Cup

To Win the World Cup

Brazil - 4.0
Argentina - 5.7
Germany - 5.8
Netherlands - 6.4
France - 9.4
Colombia - 14.5
Belgium - 14.5
Costa Rica - 85.0

*odds as of 08:00, July 2