World Cup briefing: Lionel Messi says Argentina are not favourites to win in Russia

VAR will be used for retrospective red
cards and the German squad is training hard

One-Minute Read

The Argentines only qualified for the World Cup after Messi’s
sublime hat-trick secured a 3-1 victory in the must-win match
against Ecuador last October. Then, on 28 March, their preparations
took a major hit when they were thrashed 6-1 by Spain in
Madrid.

Messi hit another treble for his country in the 4-0
friendly win against Haiti last night. After the match the
Barcelona star admitted his side were not tipped to lift the trophy
in Moscow but were working hard ahead of the finals.

Quoted by the BBC, he said: “We’re not going as favourites but will
give it our all. More than the result we were able to say goodbye
to our fans. We had a complicated time in the qualifiers, but we
are training well.”

Argentina face Iceland in their first World Cup group D game on 16 June followed by
matches against Croatia on 21 June and Nigeria on 26 June.
 

VAR to issue ‘retrospective red cards’ at World
Cup

The International Football Association Board (Ifab) has
confirmed that the video assistant referee (VAR) can issue a red
card for off-the-ball incidents missed by on-field
officials.

The Guardian reports that VAR will be used for
the first time at a World Cup this summer. Thirteen dedicated
officials have been selected by Fifa.

David Elleray, Ifab’s technical director, told The Times: “If there is something away from the
action that has been missed and it later comes to the attention of
the VAR or the assistant VAR, then they can inform the referee and
he can send the player off, even if it is later in the match. We do
not anticipate this happening very often… this would only be for
serious red-card offences.”

No holding back in Germany training

The Germany squad is training hard ahead of their World
Cup title defence in Russia – almost too hard judging by some of
the challenges.

The Daily Mail reports that after a strong tackle
by Chelsea’s Antonio Rudiger on Bayern Munich’s Joshua Kimmich the
duo had to be separated as they squared up to each
other. ESPN also adds that PSG midfielder Julian
Draxler was floored by an accidental elbow from Manchester City’s
Leroy Sane. Germany head coach Joachim Low will name his final
23-man squad before 4 June.

Peru beat young Scotland side

Peru continued their World Cup preparations with a 2-0
victory against an inexperienced Scotland in Lima last night.
Christian Cueva opened the scoring with a penalty after 37 minutes
before Jefferson Farfan doubled Peru’s lead with a second two
minutes after half-time. The South Americans have two
final World Cup warm-up matches – against Saudi Arabia in
Switzerland on Sunday and then against Sweden on 9 June in
Gothenburg.