A furious Lionel Messi clashed with Netherlands boss Louis van Gaal on the pitch before being embroiled in an explosive spat mid-interview as Argentina secured a semi-final berth at the World Cup....CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
The bad-tempered quarter-final contest saw 15 yellow cards handed out by Antonio Mateu Lahoz who has been slammed after the fixture by Messi, Emiliano Martinez and Gary Lineker among others.
Despite scoring from the spot in both normal time of the 2-2 draw as well as in the shootout, Messi was not in jubilant mood for the most part as he gestured and shouted in the direction of Van Gaal with the Netherlands out.
Then taking part in an interview in which he lashed out at both the performance of the referee and the tactics of Van Gaal, Messi clashed with a passer by, the identity of whom remains unknown.
While talking to TYSports, Messi said: “What are you looking at idiot? Keeping moving, idiot.”
Despite booking a semi-final against Croatia, who had previously knocked out Brazil on penalties, Messi and his team-mates where left fuming at the 11 minutes of additional time that led to a last-gasp second goal from Wout Weghorst, as well as Netherlands tactics.
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“Van Gaal says that they play good football, but what he did was put on tall people and hit long balls,” said Messi. “I don’t want to talk about the referee because you can’t be honest.
“If you talk they sanction you, FIFA must think about it, they can’t put a referee like that for these instances, they can’t put a referee who isn’t up to the task.”
Messi cupped his ears to the Netherlands bench after Virgil van Dijk and Steven Berghuis missed in the shoot-out, which came before he exchanged words with Van Gaal and Edgar Davids.
Messi was restrained by Argentina boss Lionel Scaloni during the rant to ensure that his player didn’t pick up any punishment from the referee before their Tuesday semi-final.
Van Gaal had said before the match: “Messi is indeed the most dangerous player who creates the most chances and also makes them himself.
“But on the other hand he does not play much with the opponent when he has possession of the ball. That is also where our chances lie.”
