New Delhi: The Argentina team has reached the semi finals of the FIFA World Cup 2022. In the quarter-finals played late on Friday (December 9), Argentina beat the Netherlands 4-3 in a penalty shootout. With this victory, Argentina has made a place in the semi-finals. Argentina will now face Croatia in the semi-finals. Koshia has made it to the final by defeating Brazil. Lionel Messi’s side will now face Croatia in the semi-finals after beating five-time champions Brazil in a penalty shootout. This is Lionel Messi’s last World Cup, so he wants to end his illustrious career by winning the World Trophy.
Paredes started the feud
There was a lot of commotion during the Netherlands-Argentina match and players from both teams collided with each other. The whole incident happened in the 55th minute of the game, when the Argentine team was leading 2-1. Nathan Ake was tackled by Argentine midfielder Leandro Paredes, causing the match referee to whistle for a foul. This angered Paredes and he hit the ball into the Dutch dugout. Let us tell you that the first commotion happened in the 55th minute of the game when the ball hit Messi’s hand. The star player should have received a yellow card as the ball hit Messi’s hands. However, the referee believed that he did not do it on purpose, leaving Messi without a yellow card. This event is being called the ‘Hand of God’ moment.
…then the Dutch player pounced
After this incident, the Netherlands players also reacted and immediately reached the field to confront Paredes. Defender Virgil van Dijk ran up and pushed Paredes. At the same time, the rest of the Dutch players also tried their best to express their anger. The match referee somehow separated the players from both the teams. The referee also showed yellow cards to Paredes and Burguis, after which the game continued.
The first goal of the match was scored by Argentina’s Nahuel Molina, assisted by Lionel Messi. With the help of this one goal, Argentina took a 1-0 lead in the first half. The game was very exciting in the second half as well. Denzel Dumfries fouled Marcos Acuna inside the box and awarded Argentina a penalty. After the penalty, Leonmesi also gave his team a 2-0 lead.
The fans made Messi feel right and wrong
The Netherlands fans were very upset with the match referee’s decision, with one fan saying, ‘This is Messi’s last World Cup. But everyone needs to be treated equally. This referee seems really one sided. Another fan said, ‘Netherlands played badly but the referees are definitely helping Argentina, not just because of Messi.’
After this it was time to return to the Netherlands. In the 83rd minute of the game, Bout Baghorst scored with a header from Sergio Berghaus’ pass to make it 2–1. The Netherlands then scored a second goal almost in the last minutes of injury time to tie the match 2-2. Baghorst also scored this goal. After the match was tied 2-2 in regulation time, Matt went into extra time where no goals were scored. After this, a penalty shootout had to be resorted to.