Argentina boss Jorge Sampaoli says Lionel Messi is struggling because of his teammates.

Argentina are reeling after their thrashing by Croatia on Thursday.

Sampaoli said: "Because of the reality of the Argentina squad, it sort of clouds Leo's brilliance. Leo is limited because the team doesn't gel with him as ideally as it should."

Argentina face Nigeria in their final group game next week but their destiny may be out of their own hands.

And their manager took full responsibility for their performances so far.

"I am the only one responsible for making the decisions," he added. "Today, the loss is my responsibility.

"I went in with a lot of hope and I am feeling a lot of pain with the defeat. For sure I didn't read the match as I should have.

"The plan for this game, I thought [we] would exercise pressure over our rival over Croatia but after the first goal we suffered emotionally and we weren't able to change the story.

"Everything that happened to this team in terms of the lack of performance of this team has to do with the leader. And I take responsibility for that if the players were not able to adapt to the gameplan.

"I take responsibility for not reading the match properly. Our plan didn't prosper."