While his team mates may give him presents on Thursday, Messi presented his coach Diego Maradona with a gift-wrapped one of his own - the prize of first place in Group B after three successive wins over Nigeria, South Korea and Greece.
"I am going to use the best players I have for that match because it is qualify or die, that's the truth," Maradona told reporters after the game. "That's why I rested Mascherano and Gabriel Heinze, Carlos Tevez and Gonzalo Higuain tonight."
"What can you do against the best team here?" said Rehhagel. "They deserved to win."
The only thing lacking for Messi, the little attacking schemer who became his country's youngest World Cup captain in place of rested skipper Javier Mascherano, was a goal.
He was denied by the width of a post after 86 minutes when he sent a scorching drive clattering against Greek goalkeeper Alexandros Tzorvas's right-hand upright.
"I was only on for 10 minutes, but there were 10 great minutes," Palermo told reporters afterwards.
"We showed we have some real strength in the squad tonight and we are just getting stronger. We are moving forward, we are improving and it was a great win for us tonight."
Greece had resisted Argentina's advances until the 77th minute when Martin Demichelis smashed the ball in from a metre out following a corner.
