Argentine star Lionel Messi has confirmed his country has felt the presence of the late Diego Maradona throughout his career at the FIFA World Cup finals in Qatar, including on Friday when Argentina beat the Netherlands 4-3 at the penalties to reach the semi-finals.
Messi seemed to inspire Argentina to qualify for the semi-final against Croatia, who defeated Brazil in the quarter-finals, after setting up Nauel Molina’s opener before half-time and adding the second goal from a penalty kick.
But Argentina blew the lead with two goals in stoppage time before goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez kept his composure to save the first two penalties from the Netherlands, then Lautaro Martinez scored the decisive kick to bring his country to qualification.
“Diego is watching us from the sky,” Messi told reporters.
Messi added: “When Lautaro scored and we qualified, there was great joy in the atmosphere. We took a lot of weight off our chest. It was a very difficult match from the start, and we knew it was going to be like this.” .
He said: “We left everything behind on the pitch. We were really happy and we enjoyed that moment, which we can see here as well as in Argentina. People are really happy, they are full of enthusiasm”, explaining that “the Dutch team he put us in trouble with long balls and the presence of so many players in his own penalty area.
He stressed: “In the end, they drew and we suffered. But we managed to reach the semi-finals, and that’s what we wanted,” according to Reuters.
Argentina will meet Croatia in search of a place in the final, after the 2018 runners-up beat Brazil on penalties last Friday.
The Argentinian star entered Fridayin a discussion with the Dutch national coach, Louis van Gaal and his assistants, after he scored the first penalty kick for Argentina and also after the match ended.
Messi approached the Dutch national team bench and celebrated the goal, and after the final whistle Messi approached the Dutch bench again and got into an altercation with the opposing manager.
The Argentina captain seemed to point out that Van Gaal talks too much at the start of the match.
Before the match, the Dutch manager criticized Messi’s style of play and promised to adopt a tactic that would render Messi ineffective, also claiming that South America would be a no-brainer for the Dutch.
It was a tense match between the Netherlands and Argentina from the start, and the Netherlands made a wonderful comeback in the last 10 minutes of the match to equalize and impose extra time and a penalty shoot-out at the end.
The match saw 15 yellow cards from Spanish referee Antonio Mateo Lahoz.
Messi played a decisive role in Argentina’s victory. Lui set up Nahuel Molina’s opener in the first half before netting a penalty after the break.
Messi, who was named man of the match, criticized Van Gaal and Mathieu Lahoz after the match. “Van Gaal says they play good football, but what he did was put tall people and hit long balls,” Messi told a reporter.
Argentina set up a semi-final fixture with Croatia at the same stadium on Tuesday after eliminating Brazil 4-2 on penalties after drawing 1-1.
