Football
Tom Marshall, Mexico correspondent 6y

Leo Messi-calibre players 'don't exist' in Mexico or Croatia - Ivan Rakitic

DALLAS -- It's not just Mexico that doesn't have a Lionel Messi, according to Croatia star and Barcelona teammate Ivan Rakitic. No other national in the world can boast an individual talent anywhere near his level.

There has been suggestions from the Croatia camp in the build-up to the friendly on Tuesday in AT&T Stadium that Mexico's national team isn't too dissimilar to that of Croatia World Cup Group D rival Argentina, with the exception of Messi.

Rakitic was asked in Monday's news conference which of El Tri's squad most resembles Messi and it brought out a chuckle from the 30-year-old.

"That doesn't exist," he said. "Not in Mexico, not in Croatia."

"It's not for nothing that he's the best in the world, for me the best in history and with full respect to others if we speak about one player not a complete team there is no one even similar to him."

"Leo is unique, we know that. But tomorrow we know we're going up against a [Mexico] group that is very strong. We respect them a lot, they are very aggressive, they also have an atmosphere between them to do everything to defend their shirt.

"We have to be on a higher level than them to be able to compete and take advantage and show that Croatia has a good national team, although with full respect, it's very difficult to match Leo."

Rakitic said he's spoken with Messi about the World Cup and thinks his Barca teammate is keen on both teams making the Round of 16 stage, with Nigeria and Iceland the other two sides in the group.

Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic has been criticized in some quarters for releasing six players -- including Luka Modric, Ivan Perisic and Mario Mandzukic -- ahead of the Mexico game, but Dalic stressed that he wants to use the game to give other players chances.

Dalic pointed out that his players aren't used to the long journey from Europe to the United States and said he agreed that Real Madrid's Luka Modric should only play one of the two games in the current international break.

"My plan was to share time between all our players because now is the last chance before the World Cup to check some players," said Dalic.

"Luka was injured one month ago. He came back to play a game and it'd be a big risk for him to play two games in four days. We want to keep him for Real in the Champions League and also for us. This was our plan."

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