Argentina superstar Lionel Messi has finally broken his silence on the much talked about ‘no show’ against the Super Eagles of Nigeria in their international friendly game.

Nigeria and Argentina face off at the Krasnodar Stadium in Russia on Tuesday, November 14, 2017.

When asked after he played 90 minutes to help Argentina beat hosts Russia 1-0 in an international friendly on Saturday afternoon, Messi confirmed that it was coach Jorge Sampaoli’s decision for him to sit out the game with Nigeria.

According to El Grafico, Messi said:

“Sampaoli decided to rest me a little bit and not play the game against Nigeria.”

”We want to get the best way to the World Cup. It’s good to win to continue correcting and improving things, we have to reinforce the game system that Sampaoli wants, we must make the most of the time together.

”It is a reality that in the selection there is little time and we have to make the most of it when we are together, reinforce what the coach wants, try to carry out the practices.” he concluded.

Lionel Messi is undoubtedly Argentina’s star player and the country’s all-time record goalscorer with 61 goals and two of those goals came against the Super Eagles of Nigeria during the last FIFA World Cup in Brazil.