Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois believes that his previous experience of facing Lionel Messi will help his team cope with the Argentina skipper when they clash in their World Cup quarter-final clash on Saturday.
The shot-stopper who is currently on-loan at Atletico Madrid and helped them to a first La Liga title in eight years has stopped Messi from scoring in their last seven meetings across La Liga, Champions League and Spanish Super Cup fixtures.
"I know him well from Atletico's games against Barcelona, so it'll be nice to play against him for our countries," Courtois told ESPN.
"Hopefully we can win, but we'll see. The good thing is that I don't have to watch videos of him because I know him so well. But even if you watch videos of him, he's so unpredictable that it's impossible to study him to know what he's going to do.
"As soon as he finds a way to shoot, he will shoot, so the only thing you can do as a goalkeeper is concentrate at all times."
The impressive goalkeeper then added that their rivals will not only depend on Messi and also praised the rest of their attacking players.
"Saturday's game will be a huge one, because Argentina have a great team, and we are showing that we are growing into the tournament," Courtois said.
"I hope we can win, but it will be tough. To hold on in defence we must be very well organised. Argentina have a very good attack, which does not just depend on Messi, there is also [Gonzalo] Higuain, [Angel] Di María, [Ezequiel] Lavezzi, [Sergio] Aguero, but at the back they are not so strong. That is where we can do them damage."
