Argentina qualified for the semi-finals due to the presence of Lionel Messi – 09/12/2022
2 min readArgentina will face Croatia in the World Cup semi-finals because they have the genius Lionel Messi.
It will be against Croatia because Brazil does not have Lionel Messi.
And Croatia has the magician Modric.
Messi moved the entire Netherlands defense to the left in the first half and gave Molina more down the right of center to open the scoring, in the 34th minute of the first half. Deceived everyone.
Since then, Argentina has put the Netherlands and the match to sleep, which Brazil did not know how to do when they were ahead of Croatia.
In a quiet second half, Acuna conceded a penalty kick and captain Messi made it 2-0, in the 27th minute, calmly from the adults.
As without some of the Argentina drama, at the age of 37 Holland has found a header goal with Weghorst.
Strange even because this Netherlands Van Gaal’s attacking career is nothing.
There, Argentina had to fight back.
And he resisted bravely. or Gardelli.
Even a mistake in the tenth of extra time on the edge of the area was deftly converted by the Netherlands, who instead of hitting straight on, as Koopminers had threatened, did so with a low touch in the area as Weghorst turned on Fernandes, leveling at 2-2 and triggering the unimaginable extension.
It went rather lethargic in the first half, as if the Netherlands pinched themselves and Argentina tried to recover from the shock.
Already in the second half of it, Di Maria entered the field, probably thinking about penalty kicks.
Argentina recovered and threatened to win, but the Netherlands, led by Van Gaal, knew how to stand up for themselves and were lucky.
And the penalties came, because the crossbar saved the score 3-2 with a final shot from Fernandez.
If Croatia’s victory over Brazil was unfair, the Dutch would have been even more so.
Van Dyck clicked the button and grabbed Martinez.
Messi made it 1-0.
Martinez also won the second penalty kick for the Netherlands.
Paredes made it 2-0.
Holland fell to 1-2.
3 to 1.
2 to 3.
Fernandez won by knockout: 2 to 3.
3 to 3.
Lautaro Martinez honored the goalkeeper’s last name: 4 to 3!
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