Crespo

Madrid: Even though Argentina have been drawn in one of the trickiest groups for next month’s World Cup, striker Hernan Crespo is confident they will avoid a repeat of their first-round elimination four years ago.

After being tipped as one of the tournament favourites in South Korea and Japan, the two-time former champions were sent packing following opening-round matches with England, Sweden and Nigeria.

Argentina were handed another tough draw, having been paired with Netherlands, Ivory Coast and Serbia & Montenegro in group C.

“We’ve got another difficult group,” the Chelsea forward said in an interview held during a squad get-together in Madrid. “But we’ve got the necessary experience to deal with it.

“I think it will be less difficult than last time because there is no ‘classico’ in this group. Argentina against England was a ‘classico’ because a game like that generates huge interest and it conditions all the other group games.

“We have a great chance to get through... maybe we are starting the World Cup before other teams as we know we will need to focus from the very first game.”

The 30-year-old Crespo said the disappointment of 2002 would not impact upon Argentina. “I don’t think we carry any burden from the failure last time,” he said. “Football is a question of destiny in many cases.

“For example in the game against Sweden (in 2002), Argentina had a huge number of chances to score and we just couldn’t convert them so we missed out on qualification. It just wasn’t meant to be our day and that’s the way things work in the game.

“It is our desire to win

the World

Cup again but it is going to be difficult and we mustn’t forget that in the history of football, Argentina has only won the World Cup twice. That shows how difficult it will be to win it.”

Although he viewed Brazil as firm favourites to win the tournament for a sixth time, Crespo said Argentina were capable of beating the champions in a one-off game. “They won the last World Cup, the last Copa America and the last Confederations Cup and all their players are important figures at their clubs,” he said. “But anything can happen in a one-off match.” (Reuters)