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Tevez enjoys competing for Argentina starting spot

BUENOS AIRES - Carlos Tevez is looking to put doubts in coach Diego Maradona’s mind as to who his strikers should be when Argentina meet Nigeria in their opening World Cup Group B match on June 11.

“Diego’s not going to have it easy, it’s going to be hard for him,” he said after the team practised on Saturday with a three-man attack of Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain and Tevez.

“It’s a nice, healthy competition among team mates, it’s competing with the best (players) football’s got,” Tevez told reporters at the squad training base on the Buenos Aires outskirts.

Maradona appeared to have settled for a 4-4-2 line-up with Messi and Higuain, who scored 61 goals between them in Spain’s La Liga this season, up front after the 1-0 win over Germany in Munich in March.

Tevez, who scored 23 Premier League goals for Manchester City, has other ideas, adding: “You go showing in training that you’re up for playing, then Diego decides who’s in best form to face Nigeria.

“I’m motivated to wear the shirt of the national team,” said Tevez, who helped Argentina reach the quarter-finals at his first World Cup in Germany four years ago. Messi also played in the 2006 finals but Higuain, with four caps, is a newcomer to the team.

“We’re going to go improving match by match. We have the players, we’re still short of a team,” said Tevez, speaking to reporters from behind a barrier.

“Argentina must beat all (the teams). If we want to be candidates we’ve got to finish the first phase very well,” he added of a group that also includes South Korea and Greece.