Argentine soccer player Lionel Messi said on Monday that his Olympic experience was great.

When arriving in Buenos Aires to join the major selection, looking forward to the next two World Cup qualifiers, Messi said he expected to "repeat" his encounters with Juan Roman Riquelme.

Messi, 21, helped the national team clinch a gold medal in Beijing.

Argentina will receive Paraguay on Sept. 6 in Buenos Aires and visit Peru on Sept. 3.

Messi said that "Paraguay is going to be a hard rival," since they are going "through a great moment, they are the leaders and we must be careful."

Argentina is two points behind Paraguay.

"We have everything solved from the midfield up, since we are the same players who won the gold medal at the Olympic Games," said Messi.

There are eight Olympic champion players: Messi, Riquelme (Boca Juniors-Argentina), Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar-Holland), Pablo Zabaleta (Manchester City-Britain), Javier Mascherano (Liverpool-Britain), Fernando Gago (Real Madrid-Spain), Angel Di Maria (Benfica-Portugal) and Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid-Spain).

(Xinhua News Agency September 2, 2008)