Lionel Messi celebrates 27th birthday with Sergio Aguero, Angel di Maria and Co

Lionel Messi was the smiling birthday boy at training on Tuesday but it's the Barcelona ace who's been the one giving out the gifts to Argentina. Sporting a special edition pair of boots from adidas to mark his 27th birthday, Messi shone particularly bright among his team-mates as they went through final preparations for their clash with Nigeria in Porto Alegre. The ostentatious boots are a technicolor version of the adizero f50 Messi boots, which the superstar has been wearing in Brazil while effectively piggy- backing his nation through the group stages.

There were just 27 pairs of the boots made - one for each year of his life - with two exclusive signed pairs to be given away on a competition @teammessi on his birthday. Despite performances below expectations, Argentina remains second favourites to take out the tournament alongside Germany, with only hosts Brazil ahead of them in the odds. A draw will be enough for Argentina in the early kick- off at Estadio Beira-Rio. They currently top Group F with six points from their opening two matches, but it's a flattering picture for Alejandro Sabella's side. On both occasions in the World Cup so far they've relied almost solely on their bright spark Messi to come up with magic moments for three points. He set up one and scored the other in their 2-1 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina while he left it until injury time to score the only goal of the match, a sensational curling effort, against Iran. With Nigeria boasting a win and a draw from their games, a win would see them leap frog the Argentines and avoid a last-16 clash with Group E winners France.

Source:DailyMail