Argentina coach Diego Maradona wants referees to protect flair players such as Lionel Messi, urging officials to be even stricter with offending opponents.
Maradona made a similar plea prior to his side's opening encounter against Nigeria - a match Argentina won 1-0 and in which Messi was outstanding - and he repeated it ahead of their second Group B fixture against South Korea on Thursday.
"If we are going to see a match when the star players are not going to be mistreated then I think they (the referees) need to be a lot stricter, and if Korea's players do something to Messi or (Carlos) Tevez then they need to get out the yellow cards, and if it happens a second time, then that's it," said Maradona.
"It all depends on the referee and what he sees. He can stop the foul tactics and he can give a yellow card or even a red card if he sees the Korean players are going for Messi just to stop him from playing - that's clear.
"I think Lionel should play his normal game and shouldn't be fearing such tactics, but that's up to the referee."
Maradona, widely regarded as one of the most skilful players to ever grace the game, added: "We came here to watch a wonderful match, we came here to see football. Those who don't want to play football, let them go home - it's as simple as that.
"People come to watch games to see players like Messi, (Cristiano) Ronaldo and Kaka. We don't want the whole spectacle affected by these issues. The referees need to be strict - they've got to get the yellow card out."
Maradona's comments came at the same press conference where he lauded Messi for his performance against Nigeria, describing the Barcelona magician's display as more than twice as good as any other individual showing in the competition so far.
When asked who had impressed him so far, Maradona said: "Lukas Podolski, Elano, Maicon...but none of them can compare to Messi's performance, none of them reached even 40% of what Messi showed."
Looking ahead to the game with South Korea, a confident but wary Maradona warned his side they will be facing an excellent team, even if they do not have a player of the calibre of Messi in their ranks.
Quizzed on who he thought South Korea's Messi was, Maradona said: "With all due respect you do not have a Messi. South Korea are based on a very strong collective block, they are very fast, they have an excellent team. They should be respected but we are going to win the match.
"We are looking at the match with a great deal of confidence. The first match of course reassured us. We've started, we're up and running in the World Cup and we know that we're doing well.
"Beating Korea would mean we're almost through. Argentina are not going to speculate - they are going to go out and win the match."
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