Argentina wanted to do it for their captain, the Netherlands for their coach. Mover and shakers of the game, football’s brutality – and how brutal! – was going to kill the dear dreams of one of them at Lusail Iconic Stadium this Friday night.
In the end, heartbreak knocked on Louis van Gaal’s door, as Argentina beat the Netherlands in a bloodbath that finished 4-3 on penalties, with the 2-2 stalemate weathering the duration of extra time.
Argentina’s Nahuel Molina was gracefully assisted by Lionel Messi to open the scoring in the 35th minute with a poked finish. Provider-turned-scorer, Messi doubled La Albiceleste’s lead from the spot in the second half, as Argentina looked set to go through to the semifinals with relative ease.
The Dutch, however, had plans to cause chaos and top-end drama, as they launched a comeback and took the game to extra time, and eventually penalties. Substitute Wout Weghorst initiated and completed the Orange recovery as he bagged a brace, with his second goal coming with practically the last play of normal time.
Argentine goalkeeper Emi Martinez saved the first two Dutch penalties and Lautaro Martinez handled the pressure of the last must-score penalty to take Argentina to their fifth men’s World Cup semifinal.
LOS HÉROES DE LA ARGENTINA. pic.twitter.com/zZqoTzdEDx
— Copa Mundial FIFA 🏆 (@fifaworldcup_es) December 9, 2022
Messi is magic
Continuing from where they left off eight years earlier, the dull non-dance of staying still in a high-stake World Cup match between van Gaal’s Netherlands and Messi-led Argentina was underway. Thirty minutes in, the Dutch had made their hot chocolate, got their book, and settled on their sofa. They were dictating the tempo with relative comfort in the first quarter.
All was going to plan; Frenkie de Jong and Nathan Ake were successfully doubling up on Messi, La Albiceleste’s greatest threat. Barring a non-significant moment or two, Messi hadn’t made any mark. Until he craved out his moment of magic.
In the 35th minute, receiving the ball in his attacking third, he trickled away from his markers and, using his behind-the-head vision, played a reverse ball into Molina’s path, erasing an army of orange shirts with it on the right side of the field, as the right back Molina puttered it home. The roof of Lusail Stadium went off with the colour of the sound, for all its impossibility, being blue and white.
Later, in the second half, with more spaces to attack, Messi…
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