Sabella: Friendly vs. Slovenia will give us a taste of what's to come
Argentina head coach Alejandro Sabella believes Saturday's friendly against Slovenia will give his players a taste of what to expect in their World Cup opener with Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Following on from a 3-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina will play their final warm-up game in front of their home fans before traveling to Brazil for the start of the tournament.
Sabella is expected to be without Manchester City defender Martin Demichelis and Inter Milan forward Rodrigo Palacio for Saturday's match in La Plata, with both players suffering knocks against Trinidad and Tobago.
Despite bemoaning their injury woes, Sabella hopes the meeting with Slovenia will be a good test for his players before taking on the Bosnians a week later.
He told reporters: "Slovenia are a European team who show some similarities to Bosnia, even though Bosnia are more attacking.
"We'll see which starting line-up we put out as we have a number of injury problems."
Lionel Messi, meanwhile, insists the threat of picking up even more injuries will not prevent the squad from giving their all against Slovenia.
"It is just a friendly and we are very close to our trip to Brazil, but we are going to give everything we can," said the Barcelona forward.
"No one wants any injury to occur, we are all being very careful of that, but we still all want to win, do our best, play well and I believe we have done that."
Slovenia head into this friendly on the back of defeats to Algeria and Uruguay.
Coach Srecko Katanec is unhappy with the recent form of his team and expects an even more difficult duel with the Albicelestes.
He said: "We expect a tough game, but we should not fear them.
"They will play well against us and with a great deal of power. We will have to play very wisely and make sure we are tactically perfect."
