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LUSAIL, Qatar (AP) — It began with Lionel Messi delivering one other soccer clinic. It ended with the Argentina famous person sporting a bloodied prime lip, shouting abuse to opponents and even blasting the referee.
And naturally there have been objectives, too, for one of many greats of the sport whose bid to win the World Cup for the primary time continues to be on monitor.
Messi is heading to the semifinals with Argentina after a penalty-shootout victory over Netherlands that had nearly all the pieces on Friday.
Argentina took a 2-0 lead, conceded an equalizer within the eleventh minute of second-half stoppage time to ship the match to further time at 2-2, after which received the shootout 4-3 amid a deafening noise inside Lusail Stadium.
Messi, who scored a penalty in regulation time, transformed his penalty within the shootout whereas goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez made two saves to assist Argentina safe a semifinal match in opposition to Croatia, which beat Brazil earlier Friday.
After Lautaro Martinez scored the clinching penalty, Messi — along with his arms outstretched — sprinted to leap into the arms of his goalkeeper.
“We needed to undergo,” Messi mentioned. “However we bought by.”
Messi did, particularly, in an usually violent match that featured 17 yellow playing cards — a file for a World Cup match — two of which went to Netherlands defender Denzel Dumfries as he was despatched off after the sport.
Messi was crucial of the Spanish referee, Antonio Mateu, saying: “I don’t suppose he was as much as the usual. He was very dangerous for us.”
And, in a facet of Messi not often seen, he broke off from his post-match interview on the sphere to shout abuse on the scorer of the Netherlands’ two objectives, Wout Weghorst.
“What are you taking a look at, silly?” Messi was heard saying.
Messi and his teammates hung round on the sphere for 20 minutes on the finish, taking turns dancing and leaping up and down in entrance of Argentina’s celebrating, scarf-waving followers.
Messi mentioned the late Diego Maradona was trying over the workforce.
“Diego is watching us from heaven,” Messi mentioned of the previous Argentina captain and coach who died two years in the past. “He’s pushing us. I hope it stays like that till the tip.”
It is just the second time Argentina has reached the final 4 since 1990. In 2014, Messi was a part of the workforce that misplaced to Germany within the closing and he appears within the temper to get there once more in a event that he’s turning into his personal private spotlight reel.
Messi delivered a mesmerizing piece of talent and imaginative and prescient to arrange the opening purpose for Nahuel Molina within the thirty fifth minute. He twisted free in central midfield and burst ahead, unbalancing Netherlands defender Nathan Ake after which delivering a no-look reverse cross for Molina to poke in a end for his first worldwide purpose.
His penalty within the 73rd minute, which got here after Marcus Acuna was tripped by Dumfries, was his fourth purpose of the event and took him to 10 total within the World Cup — tied with Gabriel Batistuta for probably the most for Argentina. Messi now has 94 objectives in whole in his 169 worldwide video games.
His workforce trailing 2-0, Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal despatched on two tall strikers — Weghorst and Luuk De Jong — and even informed heart again Virgil van Dijk to play up entrance. The sport all of a sudden modified.
Weghorst glanced in a header from a right-wing cross within the 78th — 5 minutes after approaching — after which scored the most recent second-half purpose in a knockout-stage recreation at a World Cup.
Off a cleverly labored free-kick routine discovered by Weghorst at his Turkish membership, Besiktas, Teun Koopmeiners feigned to take a shot at purpose from the sting of the realm however as a substitute performed it quick and low into the center of the realm. It deceived the Argentine protection as Weghorst took a contact, held off his marker and slotted house a end on the stretch.
Enzo Fernandez hit the put up close to the tip of additional time and was then the one Argentina participant to fail to attain within the shootout. Martinez’s saves had been from makes an attempt by Van Dijk and Steven Berghuis, after which he pulled his shorts excessive and danced a jig.
The loss ended Van Gaal’s third stint answerable for the Netherlands and Messi shared a second with the 71-year-old coach on the finish.
“Ever since we arrived right here,” Van Gaal mentioned, “we now have been centered on penalties. We thought we had been going to win the penalty shootout.”
SUSPENSIONS
Argentina fullbacks Marcus Acuna and Gonzalo Montiel will miss the semifinals after accumulating second yellow playing cards.
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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AP World Cup protection: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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