News bulletin from South Africa

The Super Eagles open their World Cup Group B campaign tomorrow against two-time champions Argentina, who are led by Barcelona superstar Messi.

The quality of Messi will clearly be something Nigeria, playing their first competitive game under Swedish coach Lars Lagerback, cannot ignore, but Wolfsburg forward Martins has warned his team-mates not to ignore his strong supporting cast.

The former Newcastle man said: "People talk a lot about Messi, forgetting that there are other very good players in the Argentinian team, such as Carlos Tevez and Diego Milito. It's a team game and we also have our own stars for the day.

Argentina: Coach Diego Maradona admits he would love to see Lionel Messi make the same impact on this World Cup as he himself did back in 1986.

Maradona took the tournament by storm 24 years ago in Mexico, scoring five goals and setting up five more en route to helping Argentina claim the World Cup crown.

"I certainly would appreciate it if he (Messi) could have the same impact on the World Cup that I had in 1986, the same leading role that I had then," said Maradona. "But behind Lionel there is a whole team backing him up and he should be the cherry on the cake."

Australia: Tim Cahill has no qualms admitting Australia will look to play it tight in their opener against Germany tomorrow.

The Socceroos have faced accusations of negativity from the opposition boss Joachim Low but Cahill said: "Let them throw stones, we'll just cop it on the chin. It doesn't bother us at all.

"What do they want – this is a World Cup, it's one of the biggest sporting events in the world so as long as we stay defensively compact and hit them on the break and see what happens, then that is the main thing for us."