Although Argentina lost, this morning, to Venezuela (1-0), Maxwell has no doubts about Leo Messi. "I think he’s already proved his quality with both Barça and Argentina. He has different teammates and they play a different game. You can’t compare the two, it’s another world, but I’m certain he’ll be triumphant with Argentina" he reiterated.

In this sense, he rejected any comparison with Neymar or any other player at the moment: "Messi is incomparable right now".

Getting into shape

Messi aside, Maxwell acknowledged that he himself is getting into good physical shape, after missing part of the preseason through injury: "It was really strange not having done the preseason work. It takes a lot to get back into shape, but the break last month allowed me to train hard and get into shape. Having lost lots of minutes in preseason was very hard for me. Now I’m pretty happy because I have no physical problems".

"A break may be beneficial"

About the current break for international games, Maxwell said that it could have its positive side: "It’s not easy to prepare training for four players. We’ve been training almost a week with the reserves, and the pace of training has been very good. It’s never the same, but we have to train to get into shape". He’s seeing some good things: "a break can be beneficial. It helps to get some players back, and others can take a rest in the middle of a run of very intense games".

The full-back believes that the most important thing is that "all the international players return in good shape" for Saturday, when Barça are at home to Racing.