Compared to the round of 16 against Australia, when Argentina had trembled with a 2-1 advantage over time, the «gauchos»’ slacking off in the closing stages of the quarter-finals against the Netherlands had consequences.
After a rehearsed, short played free kick variant, it was Joker Wout Weghorst who scored the 2:2 in the 11th minute of added time (!). The Dutch attacker had already scored the goal with a header in the 83rd minute.
Weghorst could be happy to still be on the pitch at all. Shortly after the 1: 2 he bumped into Lionel Messi and should have seen yellow. And since he had already seen the yellow card shortly before the break for complaining – still from the substitutes’ bench – a dismissal would have been the logical consequence.
Otherwise referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz (ESP) didn’t skimp on cards and showed 15 yellow cards – a record in a World Cup game.
Messi the match winner for a long time
Previously, it had been Messi who put his stamp on the game and long looked like Argentina’s sure match winner. First he checkmated the entire “Oranje” defense with a sugar pass to Nahuel Molina in the 35th minute. Molina finally tipped the ball past Netherlands keeper Andries Noppert to make it 1-0.
Messi scored the second goal himself with a penalty. Denzel Dumfries brought down Marcos Acuna on the edge of the box. For Messi, it was his 95th goal in his 170th game with the Albiceleste, leveling him with Argentina’s record goalscorer Gabriel Batistuta.
Martinez saves 2 penalties
In extra time, Argentina almost got the lucky punch in the person of Enzo Fernandez. However, the midfielder only hit the post in the 121st minute.
In the penalty shoot-out, Messi was the first to score for his team, while Virgil van Dijk and Steven Berghuis saw their attempts blocked by Argentina keeper Emiliano Martinez. And because Fernandez was the only player on the Albiceleste side, Argentina prevailed in the end. From 2:0 to 2:2 to victory after a penalty shootout – more drama is hardly possible.
The Netherlands missed out on taking revenge for losing the semifinals at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. At that time, the “Gauchos” also prevailed in the penalty shoot-out, but then lost in the final against Germany. Now Messi and Co. can continue to dream of their first world title since 1986.
Van Gaal resigns
With the defeat of the Netherlands, a great coaching career came to an end: Louis van Gaal had already announced in advance that the World Cup would be over. The record of the 71-year-old Dutchman is impressive. In the 19 games since his return as “Bondscoach”, “Oranje” had remained unbeaten. On the 20th attempt, Van Gaal and his team were caught.
This is how it goes
The semifinals are scheduled for Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Lusail Stadium. So Argentina has 3 days of recovery time. The opponent will be Croatia (from 7:00 p.m. live on SRF Zwei).