Rio De Janeiro: Lionel Messi scored a trademark individual goal as Argentina opened their World Cup campaign with a narrow 2-1 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina at Rio de Janeiro's renovated Maracana on Sunday.

The Barcelona superstar created the third-minute own goal by Sead Kolasinac with which Argentina went ahead, but it took a mid-match tactical shift for him to really start influencing proceedings.

In the 65th minute he scored a goal befitting of the iconic 78,800-seater stadium, collecting the ball deep and exchanging passes with Gonzalo Higuain before darting past a pair of defenders and slamming home via the base of the left-hand post.

Argentina's forward and captain Lionel Messi celebrates after scoring his team's second goal during the Group F football match between Argentina and Bosnia-Hercegovina at the Maracana Stadium in Rio De Janeiro during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Pic/AFP

It was only the second World Cup goal of the 26-year-old's career and substitute Vedad Ibisevic's late reply for Bosnia meant that it proved decisive.

With tournament debutants Bosnia likely to be Argentina's strongest rivals for group supremacy, Alejandro Sabella's side are firmly on course to reach the last 16 ahead of further games against Iran and Nigeria.

Victory was raucously celebrated by the swathes of blue and white-clad fans who had swept into Rio and turned the Maracana -- overhauled for the World Cup -- into an outpost of Buenos Aires, but it was far from straightforward.