Sergio Ramos hit back at Diego Maradona by claiming Lionel Messi is the best Argentinian player in history.

The Spain captain was responding to the 57-year-old who, earlier in the week, said the Real Madrid defender was not as good as his Atletico Madrid rival Diego Godin.

Ramos, 32, was speaking after Spain’s 1-0 win over Iran at the World Cup on Wednesday and made it clear his Barcelona rival was far superior to Maradona.

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‘In Argentina, they know that Maradona is light years away from the best Argentinian player in history which, for me, is Lionel Messi,’ he said.

Spain’s win moved them joint-top of Group B alongside Portugal with one game left to play in the group stage and Ramos was relaxed about their position.

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‘They [Iran] went out to waste time, whereas we like to win in a different way,’ he said.

‘We leave happy. We’ve taken another step forward and now we have to try to top our group, it’s our objective.

‘I still think we can improve in all aspects.’

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Spain play Morocco in their final group game at Kaliningrad Stadium on Tuesday.