Argentina kept their World Cup hopes alive after a fanatical victory against the Netherlands on Friday. The matchup will go down as one of the greatest quarterfinal games in the tournament’s storied tradition. Ultimately, the South Americans advanced to the semifinals in a penalty shootout.
It seemed that Argentina could outplay the Dutch early in the match. Nahuel Molina, with the help of Lionel Messi, put the South Americans up 1-0 in the first half. Messi placed an incredible pass into Molina’s path and the full-back conceded on goal.
It was the defender’s first international goal for his team. On the other side of the spectrum, the assist was Messi’s seventh in his World Cup career.
Argentina doubled their lead in the 73rd minute when Dutch fullback Denzel Dumfries brought down Marcos Acuña inside the box. Messi, of course, would take and then convert the penalty. However, there was an incident three minutes later that seemed to turn the tide towards the Dutch.
Martinez’s antics wake up the Dutch national team
Emi Martinez edged past Dutch striker Luuk de Jong after receiving a harmless cross in his penalty area. The strange move seemed to set the Dutch team on fire. Substitute Wout Weghorst gave the Netherlands his goal just seven minutes after the incident. It would not be the last we heard from the striker.
Weghorst finally leveled the score in the tenth and final minute of regulation time. The Netherlands put on an incredible free-kick routine as Teun Koopmeiners passed the short ball to Weghorst and the striker completed his brace.
The Dutchman scored as many goals in 20 minutes tonight as he had for Burnley during the 2021/22 season.
Argentina beat the Netherlands on World Cup penalties
Despite not making a single save in the 120 minutes of the match, Martínez blocked the first two penalties he faced in the shootout. Virgil van Dijk and Steven Berghuis failed to convert their penalty kicks. The Inter Milan striker, Lautaro Martínez, later put the final dagger on the Dutch team.
The epic match was also riddled with things. The referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz distributed 17 cards in total in the match. None, however, resulted in a player being ejected. Leandro Paredes was perhaps the luckiest player not to see several cards after committing a sharp foul and then firing the ball into the Dutch bench.
Argentina will now face Croatia in the World Cup semifinals on Tuesday, December 13.
PHOTO: IMAGO / image agency
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