The football world has hailed Lionel Messi for the quality of his performance against Ecuador in which he scored a hat-trick, sending Argentina to World Cup 2018.

Even some of the players' detractors have gobbled up humble pie in recent days, by the forkful. However Luis Figo preferred not to rave about Messi, instead saying: "Messi doesn't surprise us anymore. We're used to this performance game after game. Football fans didn't doubt Argentina."

He also spoke about his new role as advisor to UEFA chief Alexander Ceferin. "I will be Ceferin's advisor on everything related to football, technical aspects, laws of the game and evolution of the rules."

Figo added, on technology: "If it doesn't stop the play too much it's important that technology advances with football and eliminates the errors."