It is the day of reckoning in World Cup qualifying. In almost every confederation some of the biggest names in the global game teeter precariously on knife edge, only a kick away from success or failure, and none more so than Diego Maradona's Argentina.

Despite having the likes of Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez and Sergio Agüero in their ranks the Albicelestes face the ignominy of having to go through the play-offs if they lose to Uruguay in Montevideo, which seems quite likely, or worse, miss out altogether, if other results go against them.

It is topic picked up with gusto by the Daily Mail's Martin Samuel, who lays the blame for Argentina's humiliating predicament at the feet of the their aforementioned manager: Diego Armando Maradona.

"How they [Argentina] came to stand on this knife edge is a mystery to anyone who looks at a squad made up of outstanding players, with Lionel Messi top of the bill, but not to those who consider the man in charge. The management of an international football team requires a strategist, a clear thinker, a cool head, a man who will use the restless space between games to resolve problems clearly and rationally.

Argentina instead went for a crackerjack, a maverick, a phenomenon who refers to himself in the third person and once claimed to have been the victim of 'a total lack of respect' from the Pope. 'Poor old Diego,' wrote Jorge Valdano, Maradona's team-mate in the 1986 World Cup triumph and now general manager at Real Madrid. 'For so many years we have told him repeatedly, 'You're a God', 'You're a star', 'You're our salvation'', that we forgot to tell him the most important thing: 'You're a man'."