Diego Maradona's World Cup debut as a coach ended in a 1-0 victory as Lionel Messi started to demonstrate he could transform his club form at Barcelona to the world stage.

Gabriel Heinze headed in the only goal after five minutes but Messi, so often unable to reproduce the Nou Camp sparkle on national team duty, was his team's star.

However he and his team-mates were unable to make the margin of victory a more convincing one as Vincent Enyeama in the Nigeria goal denied them time and again.