The victory did not temper the fiery spirit of the Argentine players, who ended up very angry with the referee, the Spanish Mateu Lahoz, whom they blamed for taking them to extra time. “I felt a lot of anger,” Messi said, “but I’m not going to talk about the referee because then they penalize you and you can’t be honest.”
The ten Argentine, however, made it very clear what he thought: «People already saw what it was. We were scared before the game because we knew what it was like. FIFA cannot put a referee like that in a match with such competition and who is not up to the task. An hour later, at the press conference and already cold, he ratified all his words: «Mateu harmed us. That fault was not for them ».
Even tougher was the goalkeeper, Dibu Martínez, who described him bluntly as “the worst World Cup referee by far.” “The referee wanted us to tie, I don’t know what he took on the free kick or why he gave ten minutes of additional time,” the goalkeeper expanded.
Messi’s anger extended to the Dutch coach, Louis van Gaal, whom he attacked for his football proposal: “Van Gaal sells that he plays football well but then he only hits balls.”
The Argentine star in a way returned it to the coach, who had previously criticized him for “not playing much against the rival when he does not have possession of the ball.”
In the mixed zone, Messi also faced Weghorst, author of the two goals for the Netherlands, who asked to exchange the shirt with the Argentine.
The anger of ten was clear. “What are you looking at, stupid?” Messi repeated before the interviewer’s attempts to calm him down.
Scaloni defended his pupil: «Leo was a little touched. He is the best in history and we don’t play with ten, but with eleven ». The Argentine coach was surprised by Van Gaal’s approach in the second half: «They proposed a very strange second half, the game was cut off because they dedicated themselves to throwing balls at the forwards. It is legal to play like this, but they force you to defend because they put in three forwards of one ninety. He played us in a way that we did not expect, it is true, but they were also staying out of the World Cup ». The questioned, Louis van Gaal, who says goodbye to the orange team, did not enter the rag: «They scored a goal with a great pass from Messi. But we had a height advantage with the forwards. It has gone well for us and we have achieved the tie ».
