Lionel Messi believes Argentina can become genuine World Cup contenders if they finish off their preparations for Russia correctly.
Messi's side had to battle hard to come through South American qualifying in third place, and have had some disappointing results recently, most notably a 6-1 hammering in Spain in March.
Jorge Sampaoli's men did beat Haiti 4-0 thanks to a Messi hat-trick and will play Israel before heading to Russia - where they are 8/1 shots to win the World Cup.
Argentina have an intriguing Group D to tackle in Russia – they open up against Iceland at the Otkritie Arena in Moscow on June 16, before taking on Croatia and Nigeria.
Although they struggled somewhat in qualifying, Messi says La Albiceleste have now had some time to prepare properly for the World Cup, and can grow into being challengers.
"It will be important to prepare well, because in the qualifiers we were fighting up to the end and we didn't have time to prepare ourselves," Messi told Paper Magazine.
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"We still have to make ourselves stronger as a team to be in the running to win and be at the same level as other teams like France, Germany, Brazil or Spain, but we have a good group of players and the Argentine team is always going to be a candidate to win, it doesn't matter how we get there.
"We always aim to win and we will try to go slowly, but strongly to advance in the competition."
Messi won the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player in the last World Cup, when Argentina lost in the final to Germany, and this year could be his last chance to lead his country to glory.
Despite being alongside Cristiano Ronaldo as the best players of their generation, the 30-year-old Barcelona star insists he does not think of himself as a superstar.
"I don't consider myself the best, I think I am just another player. On the field, we are all the same when the game begins."
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