After surviving a thrilling 2-2 extra-time draw on a night of high World Cup drama, Argentina defeated the Netherlands on penalties to advance to the semi-finals, where they will play Croatia. Argentina defeated the Netherlands 4-3 on penalties.
Emiliano Martinez, Argentina’s goalkeeper, saved the day in the penalty shootout after the South Americans lost a two-goal lead in the final minutes of normal time after Lionel Messi had put them in position to advance to the round of 16.
The Netherlands fought back with seven minutes of normal time remaining to force extra time and Wout Weghorst scored two dramatic goals in the dying seconds, the second coming from a remarkably inventive free kick in the 11th minute of stoppage time.
Following Messi’s brilliant assist for Nahuel Molina and skillful goal from the spot, Argentina appeared well on their way to the last four.
Argentina survived to keep South American interest in the competition, just hours after Brazil and Neymar lost to the Croats on penalties.
The Lusail stadium felt like home for Argentina with no less than 3/4 of the 88,235 groups backing the South American group and just a sprinkling of orange shirts in the group.
But everyone got to watch a thrilling late-night drama that ended just before 1 a.m. local time.
Ten minutes before the break, Messi produced a moment of inspiration to score his team’s opener after a cagey start.
He brilliantly reversed Daley Blind and Virgil van Dijk’s pass to Nahuel Molina, who timed his run perfectly and tapped home with the outside of his foot, breaking open the Dutch defense without indicating his intentions.
Dutch mentor Luis van Gaal answered at the break by rolling out a twofold improvement, welcoming Teun Koopmeiners and Steven Berghuis on into midfield instead of Bergwijn and Marten De Roon.
But even though the Dutch got a lot of the ball, their play was too predictable and lackluster.
– Free-kick genius – The momentum was with the Argentines, so it came as no surprise that in the 73rd minute, after Denzel Dumfries had tripped Marcos Acuna in the box, Messi scored from the spot and buried the ball in the corner.
However, the Dutch were not about to give up. Seven minutes from the end, Weghorst scored with an angled, glancing header from deep from a Berghuis cross.
Ten minutes of added time raised Dutch expectations and – tempers with two or three mass confrontations – and they moved Van Dijk front and center and siphoned balls into the case.
One of those high balls resulted in a free kick just outside the area deep into added time.
Koopmeiners faked a normal shot before all things considered, shockingly, playing a short pass into Weghorst, who twisted past Enzo Fernandez and jabbed home the balancer.
After the exuberant celebrations were over, the game entered extra time and curiously slowed down before resuming in the second half.
Lautaro Martinez saw Fernandez’s powerful shot toward the goal deflect off Van Djik, and Fernandez’s second deflected shot flew just over the bar.
After that, Lautaro forced Noppert to make a diving save, Messi missed a shot, and Fernandez’s long-range drive was stopped by the post.
Penalties came next after all of that.
Martinez dived to his right to save Van Dijk, who rose first. Martinez saved Berghuis once more after Messi followed and made no mistakes.
Even though Fernandez missed this time, Argentina held on to win the penalty shootout and advance to the semifinals. The Dutch could not recover.