Argentina will kick off their world cup campaign against debutants Iceland in group D's opening fixture following last night putting Argentina opener in the spotlight after Cristiano Ronaldo's heroics saw Portugal and Spain play out to a 3-3 draw.
Cristiano Ronaldo stole the headlines with an outstanding performance scoring a hat trick which included a stunning free kick to level matters towards the end.
This now puts an even brighter spotlight on Ronaldo's rival Lionel Messi to do something similar or at least to top that, but that's going take some doing after yet again Ronaldo' s knack of creating history shined through.
Ronaldo not only scored a hat trick against one of the pretournament favourites, but he did so becoming only the fourth player to score at four different world cup tournaments, the oldest player to score a world cup hat trick and became the leading goal scorer in international football.
Now it's Messi's turn to step up to the plate.
Messi, just like Ronaldo, has been given the task of guiding his nation to with what by the looks of it could be his final chance at World Cup glory.
But unlike Ronaldo the Barcelona man has had to carry Argentina for a number years despite having players like Angel di Maria, Sergio Aguero and Gonzalo Higuain by his side which means considerable interest will be shown not only just Messi, but also the whole team when they face the unknown in the form of Iceland.
While it should be expected for Argentina to overcome Iceland, the Albiceleste haven't been the most convincing in recent times and had a brief brush with controversy when they opted out of playing Israel in an international friendly in preparation for the World Cup.
Instead the only preparation Argentina had was a friendly against a lowly Haiti winning 4-0 a result which doesn't say much in terms of their preparation for Russia.
Again Argentina should have more than enough in their locker to win their first game, however, in the group context the South Americans and Messi go into the tournament being known elements and emphasis will likely be on stopping Argentina's little maestro in order to hinder the rest of the team.
In a group which could make life complicated for Argentina emphasis should be on the opening fixture given that Nigeria and Croatia could make for dangerous adversaries for Argentina if their only play in Russia will involve Messi having to once again carry the team instead of the other number of stars within the Argentine ranks finally pulling their weight.
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