Lionel Messi and Argentina are certainly in a spot of bother.

The South American side were handed one of their worst World Cup moments ever on Thursday night, with Croatia beating them 3-0.

The European outfit were simply better in every single department, with Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic running the show.

It was also Messi's second underwhelming display in a row out in Russia, while Cristiano Ronaldo has already scored four goals for Portugal.

There is still a glimmer of hope for Barcelona's talisman, but they simply have to beat Nigeria on Tuesday evening.

The Super Eagles beat Iceland 2-0, meaning that three points against Nigeria would likely secure passage to the last-16 - barring a Croatia collapse vs Iceland.

But the damage may already be done in Argentina and the media out there have really not reacted well to the situation.

Jorge Sampaoli has been heavily criticised, but as is expected, Messi has been at the centre of it all.

Amazingly, the Argentine media want him to call time on his international career, despite only being 30 and still at the peak of his powers.

Guess it just shows how high his standards are...

"Messi owns the Argentina team," Argentine journalist Fernando Niembro said.

"He is the coach of the Argentina team and what he decided to do is play his friend and this is the result of putting your friends. A weak team, a team that isn't what it can be, a team without heart.

"Messi we asked for heart. You are the best player, when a team fails what you ask of the best player is that you dig deep and you couldn't even do that.

"Enough of Mascherano, your friend, enough from Sampaoli and his contradictions, enough of putting pressure, enough of taking control without a plan.

"And the truth, once Messi walked away from the Argentina team, and it wouldn't be bad if he thought about it again."

Wow, talk about overreacting.

There is still time for Sampaoli to react and get his tactics sorted for the Nigeria game, which will now be one of the biggest in Messi's career.

Never rule him out.