After a shocking 2-1 defeat to Saudi Arabia, Lionel Messi does understand that his side has to make a strong comeback in their next two matches against Mexico and Poland, respectively.
Otherwise, the Albeiceleste may well be out of the tournament after the first round. The Argentine captain expects a strong reaction from the players after such an unexpected result.
Speaking to an Argentine television channel, Todo Noticias, Lionel Messi said.
Read more: Qatar World Cup: Saudi Arabia's stunning victory end Argentina's 36-match winning streak
"Obviously we have to win or win now. It's up to us to fix what we did wrong and get back to the basics of who we are."
"We're OK, obviously hurt by the result, very bitter." But people must trust that this team will not let them down, and we are going to go for it in the next two games. We've played games of this nature before, and we're going to perform well.
"Now's the time to be more united than ever, to show how truly strong we are."
Though Lionel Messi wasn't surprised by the threat from a much lower-ranked team, Saudi Arabia. He also mentioned that the current group of players hasn't faced this kind of situation as Saudi Arabia ended their 36-match unbeaten streak in this match.
"We knew they were a team who would play if we let them... "They did not surprise us; we knew they could do that."
Read more: World Cup stunner: Saudi Arabia beat Messi’s Argentina 2-1
"It's a situation that this group of players has never been through; it's been a while since we suffered such a tough blow, we didn't expect to start like this," Messi said while speaking to an Argentinian TV channel after the match.
Argentina will only have four days to recover from this shocking result before facing Mexico on November 27 and Poland on December 1.