It's not over yet for Argentina

Lionel Messi's penalty miss and Argentina's failure to beat World Cup debutants Iceland have caused quite a stir in the social media.

Besides the anti-Argentina supporters, many Albicelestes fans have also slammed the Barcelona forward for a lukewarm performance. Credit to Iceland, they gave the Argentinians a run for their money.

But is everything over for Messi and boys?

The answer cannot be 'yes' for a team that dream of winning the trophy. True, the star-studded Argentina team failed to break through the gritty Iceland defence to get the winner, but the two-time champions were not that bad.

Had Messi scored that penalty, the result would certainly have been different. Argentina had 78 per cent possession of ball and took 27 shots, 7 of which were on target. They earned 10 corners to Iceland's two, stats that suggest they did almost everthing possible but the winning goal.

But football is a game of goals and in the end goals are all that matter.

Croatia beat Nigeria 2-0 in the group's other game on Saturday and they now top the group. Jorge Sampaoli's boys will face the Croats in their next match and anything but a win will make qualification difficult.

Messi has to get over the missed penalty as soon as possible because he is still one of the bests in the world and he can make the difference on his day.

Argentina fans can draw inspiration from history. Their World Cup winning team of 1978 lost a group game to Italy while the class of 1986 drew a group match against the same opponents. Still, they went on to become champions. They lost their first group match to Cameroon in 1990, yet reached the finals.

The West Germany team were humbled by Hungary in the group stages in 1954, yet they went on to lift the trophy by beating the same opponents in the final. And the last Euro winners of 2016, led by Messi's perennial footballing rival Ronaldo, also drew their first group match 1-1, against this very nation, Iceland.

The mention of Ronaldo brings his hattrick against the mighty Spain to our minds. Many have gone on to say that Messi has lost a personal battle against the Real Madrid forward. But Messi will probably not mind losing personal battles now, as long as the team win.

Croatia are a solid team, but they can have bad days, as we have seen in the qualification campaign. Messi just needs to play his game.

It is too early to write Argentina off.