Lionel Scaloni hailed his Argentina side’s “beautiful” penalty shoot-out win against the Netherlands, but admitted his side were dragged into an “ugly game” by a Dutch side who surprised him with their aggressiveness
The manager’s comments came after an exciting but extraordinarily ill-tempered game that featured one red card and 16 yellow cards, two of which came during a penalty shoot-out in which Dutchman Denzel Dumfries was sent off for taunting of rivals After Argentina had won 4-3 on penalties following a 2-2 draw, their players booed the Dutch while Lionel Messi also exchanged words with Louis van Gaal and his assistant Edgar Davids.
“The game got heated,” Scaloni said. “But that was a quarter-final. And what happens on the pitch stays on the pitch. Of course we had 11 men. Leo [Messi] he was a very important player and proved that he is the best of all time and we are happy that he is with us”.
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Argentina’s Leandro Paredes was also fortunate to only receive a yellow card not only for a bad foul on Nathan Aké, but for then smashing the ball into the Dutch bench, leading to a shoving match between both sides.
But Scaloni suggested that it was the Netherlands that had been the instigators. Asked if they had played in a way that was anti-football, he replied: “They have played in a way that I did not expect from them. But each team, each coach, decides how to play. I won’t talk about his football philosophy, but the truth in the second half was an ugly game.
“We didn’t have chances and they were interrupted often, but they are allowed to play as they want.”
Messi was man of the match, creating the first, scoring the Argentine’s second from the spot and then, for good measure, putting them ahead in the penalty shootout. But he admitted his side had suffered after squandering a 2-0 lead with Dutch striker Wout Weghorst scoring twice in the final seven minutes to force extra time.
“We have suffered too much,” he said. “It was a very hard match. We lived it in the field for the people. And Diego Maradona sees us from heaven, he is pushing us to the end”.
However, Messi, who was also booked for arguing with Spanish referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz, was critical of how the match was run. “I felt a lot of anger,” he said. “I don’t want to talk about the referee because then you get penalized, you can’t say what you think because they penalize you. FIFA must review it.”
Argentina are now favorites to lift their third World Cup, but Messi refuses to get carried away.
“Croatia is a very difficult opponent,” he added. “They have great players, they know each other very well. They have had the same coach since the last World Cup and it is a semi-final of the World Cup, it will be difficult”.