Barcelona power rankings from World Cup Matchday One
3. Lionel Messi
The Argentine had an off game by his ridiculously high standards, but he was still the main driving force for Argentina in an encouraging performance even if they didn’t get the desired result. Iceland are a notoriously defensive team because they spend the majority of games deep in their own half. This was the case against La Albiceleste, which is understandable because they were happy to come away with a draw.
Argentina’s play was focused on getting the ball to Messi into central attacking areas. Iceland’s solution for that was to try and contain him with three players around him at all times. The fact that he managed to create so many openings and spray forward passes without losing possession should be astonishing in itself. His shooting may have been poor, but this was still a top performance.
Argentina fans may be worried about not getting through the group, but they shouldn’t be . They had a cohesive system, and Messi is likely to be firing in other games. Few teams will be as physical or defensively solid as Iceland. Therefore, the issue against Nigeria and Croatia will be ensuring they aren’t defensively leaky.
2. Andres Iniesta
Spain, and Iniesta, rolled back the years with some sublime football. It’s fair to say that the football on display was closer to how they played under Luis Aragones in 2008 rather than Vicente Del Bosque. There was a lot less aimless possession and more positional play, which made La Roja exciting to watch.
Iniesta, in particular, was a joy to watch through his interchanging and sharp passing. They cut through Portugal with ease at times, and Iniesta was a key part of this until he was substituted off as his age caught up with him.
The 34-year-old had an excellent understanding with Isco as they vacated and occupied spaces to move the opposition around and pull them out of position. Jordi Alba provided runs from deep on the overlap, with Iniesta often playing him in. He may struggle to play full matches, but Iniesta showed his quality for 70 minutes in a high-tempo game. They will need him against other tough opponents later on in the tournament.
Next: Frenkie de Jong refuses to commit his future to Ajax
1. Sergio Busquets
The 29-year-old put in an exquisite performance as he orchestrated from deep. He participated heavily in build-up and ensured that possession was circulated effectively. Spain’s system bore huge similarities to Barcelona’s set-up, so Busquets was in his element, especially with the array of talented midfielders ahead of him.
Busquets is always a willing passing option regardless of his position on the pitch, and is near impossible to press. Therefore, he is a key part of keeping sustained pressure on the opposition through domination of territory and possession. The only issue is his lack of pace, but Ramos and Pique are mobile centre-backs which makes up for it and helps reduce the gaps for the opposition to exploit on the counter.
Spain were excellent considering the disruption to their pre-tournament preparation as well as the threat of Cristiano Ronaldo on the counter. Few teams will be able to exploit their weaknesses in such a way and La Roja should be able to grow into the tournament. Therefore, they could go a long way based on their performance because of the understanding of the team as a whole and the associations between players, which no other team has matched so far in Russia.