WORLD CUP 2010 SOUTH AMERICA:ARGENTINA COACH Diego Maradona took a swipe at his critics and thanked his players after guiding his country to next year's World Cup finals with a 1-0 win over Uruguay on Wednesday night.

Huracan midfielder Mario Bolatti, winning just his third cap, fired home with six minutes remaining in Montevideo after the home defence failed to deal with Juan Sebastian Veron’s drilled effort from a free-kick.

Maradona has come in for fierce criticism for his disjointed handling of Argentina’s qualification campaign, which has seen him field over 70 players, but the win secured fourth place in the South American qualifying zone and the final automatic berth for South Africa.

And the 48-year-old was quick to praise his players for their efforts. “I would like to thank the team for giving me the privilege to lead Argentina to the World Cup,” he said. “Thank you to the Argentinian people who had faith.

“Thanks to the players who managed to stand firm and take this group forward. I have a good memory and now I am going to remember more than ever. This is for those who did not believe in the national team and treated me like dirt – they will now have to accept this. I want to thank the players and fans – no one but them.”

Maradona also hit back at reports of a rift between himself and team manager Carlos Bilardo. “They (the press) invented that I was fighting with Bilardo. They gave wrong information. If you want to exchange information, to give it before you know the facts, the problem is yours.”

Uruguay now need to prevail in a play-off against Costa Rica if they are to join Argentina in the finals.

Barcelona playmaker Lionel Messi had been largely anonymous in the opening half but gave a display of his talents after 61 minutes when he ran at the heart of the Uruguayan defence before playing in Gonzalo Higuain but the Real Madrid man was beaten to the ball by the alert Fernando Muslera.

Uruguay’s task was made all the harder when they were reduced to 10 men after 83 minutes when Caceres picked up his second booking of the night for using his arm to pull down Jonas Gutierrez. And the game was finally up when they conceded from the resulting free-kick.

Messi started the move, shifting the ball left for Veron to take a shot from long range which ricocheted in the area before falling to Bolatti, who brought the ball under control before slotting home to book Argentina’s safe passage to South Africa.