Et was an evening of beauty and madness, of almost total control and complete loss of control – in short, it was the most rousing, most dramatic, most unbelievable evening of this world championship so far. The Argentines were 2-0 up after 73 minutes, Lionel Messi had opened the door for his team with a breathtaking pass in the first half and then scored the second goal with a converted penalty.
Everything, absolutely everything pointed to a win for the Albiceleste in the quarter-finals at the Lusail stadium on Friday night, but then Wout Weghorst, a late substitute, scored twice more for the Netherlands, so that in the eleventh minute it was actually on ten minutes of stoppage time suddenly meant 2:2.
Incidentally, it was also an evening of dreadful, self-portrayal refereeing by the Spaniard Antonio Mateu, about which the Argentines in particular complained heavily. In any case, the penalty shoot-out became a drama within the drama, Argentina goalkeeper Martinez saved the first and second penalties of the Dutch van Dijk and Berghuis, the first three Argentines, including Messi, scored.
But then they also missed the first shot, the Dutch scored twice, now the pressure was on the Albiceleste again, but Lautaro Martinez converted her fifth attempt to make it 4: 3 – Argentina is thus in the semi-finals on Tuesday (8:00 p.m. CET, in the afternoon). FAZ live ticker for the World Cup and on MagentaTV) again in Lusail against Croatia. And after this insane spectacle, in which Messi has long starred, his fifth World Cup could indeed be his masterpiece.
For a long time, however, it had looked quite undramatic. The Netherlands and Argentina are two of the best organized teams at this World Cup. With Louis van Gaal, everyone knows exactly what to do, with Lionel Scaloni it’s no different, but with the special feat of allowing Messi to play the role of the strolling free spirit, sometimes more, like last time against Australia, sometimes less, like against the Netherlands.
It was clear early on that the man with the number ten saw his role as integral from the start this time, he did a lot of little things right, once he broke from the circle of five Dutchmen, but he still kicked for half an hour not decisive in appearance.
That’s why it wasn’t boring, you can see from the German sofa at home how precise, gripping and at the same time enthusiastically the Argentines know how to defend.
Messi’s stroke of genius
But when it comes to the true experience, there are other moments that amaze you, rare moments in the art of football that can only be created by someone who travels in space and time in their own dimension.
Messi led the ball in the half-right midfield position, still unobtrusively, but then he recognized what was opening up in the middle for a corridor, first he picked up the pace slightly, then more determined, he left two or three Dutchmen like that, but in all of them Time he wasn’t looking right.
He must have memorized where Molina was at the start of his run and more importantly he seemed to be projecting its trajectory onto some sort of internal 3D navigation system, at least he knew exactly where the defender who had moved up was going to emerge from Dutch cover . Messi’s pass, with centimeter precision into Molina’s run, was a breathtaking moment of this World Cup, which was rewarded with the opening goal (34th).
The game became a little more open after the break, no longer structured down to the last detail, but that didn’t lead to chances at first. Until Messi came back in the 62nd minute and went down after a light hand movement by van Dijk, free kick from a good 20 meters in the middle. Of course Messi tried it himself, the ball sailed sharply from above onto the net. A standard that was, in a sense, the prelude for those from eleven meters after Dumfries fouled Acuna (73rd).
After that it got heated, there were fights and pack formation, after Weghorst’s goal with a header (83rd), a shot from Berghuis rushed, slightly deflected, to the side netting. The Argentines defended with everything they had, but then they finally committed a foul in a dangerous zone.
And for that moment, the Dutch still had something special in store, a free-kick pass past the wall in front of the goal where Weghorst had detached himself. Argentina and Messi weren’t the same now – but they recovered.
They tried everything in extra time and came close to a goal several times, the closest in the 120th minute when Fernandez shot at the outside of the post. Another showdown was planned for this evening.
