Argentina players don’t deserve to wear the shirt, says Maradona

Former Argentina player and coach Diego Maradona deemed the crop of Argentina players as unworthy of wearing the national team jersey after they were defeated by Venezuela.

Lionel Messi returned to the lineup after a break from international football but he did not manage to cover the holes of a leaky defense. He showed some of his magic at the attacking end but the forward line was unable to take the opportunities that were being handed to them by the Barcelona man. While Maradona did not directly put any blame on the Barca playmaker, he was scathing in his attack.

The 1986 World Cup winner said when asked if he had watched the game against Venezuela: "I prefer not to watch horror films but I don't know how the inept bunch who are in charge of Argentina thought they were going to beat Venezuela."

Maradona added on those at Lionel Scaloni's disposal: "It hurts me because I feel Argentinean to the core, but with the generation of players like [Oscar] Ruggeri, [Gabriel] Batistuta, [Claudio] Caniggia... the current team don't deserve to wear the shirt and those players had it tattooed on them.

"We'd give our lives to see the back of [Claudio] Tapia, who has no idea what he's doing."

Maradona especially blamed Tapia for the lack of guidance and said that he felt sorry for the players too.

"I feel sorry for the Argentinean people, who continue to believe in this liar, and I feel sorry for the players who have to take the consequences when the people that should be doing so are the directors who are giving away the prestige of the Argentina national team."

Argentina have been placed alongside Colombia, Paraguay and Qatar in Group B of the 2019 Copa America.