Chelsea In Qatar – Netherlands v Argentina
Netherlands 2 – 2 Argentina (after 30 mins extra time: Argentina win 4-3 on penalties)
(Quarter-finals, Lusail Stadium, 09/12/2022)
No real Chelsea interest in this one.
The Dutch fans are heavily outnumbered in this stadium.
Some early crunching tackles, with the Dutch having the best of the early exchanges
the first half hour flies by.
32 mins and one of the Argentinian bench Walter Samuel gets the first yellow card of the game for being a bit to vocal.
35mins Argentina second best so far go ahead after a great bit of skill from Messi as his great reverse ball finds Molina who beats van Dijk and fires home.
The volume of noise in the stadium rises and the crowd are bouncing.
42 mins and Timber is booked for pushing over Acuna in response to his bad foul on Dumfries, Acuna is also booked and will miss the next game if Argentina go through.
45 Mins and Romero is booked for handball trying to stop Depay getting away from him.
47mins and the sub Weghorst on the Dutch bench is booked for complaining.
The game is boiling over, the whistle goes and it’s 1-0 to Argentina, 2-1 in bookings on it and 1-1 off it.
The Dutch make two subs for the restart, Koopmeiners and Berghuis come on replacing de Roon, and Bergwijn
58 mins and the Dutch are carved open but a bad final ball and the attack is gone.
60 mins and Messi wins a free-kick on the edge of the area. It’s a great strike and just sails a few cm over the bar.
64 mins and De Jong comes on to replace Blind, the Dutch need to find an attacking outlet as they are a bit devoid of ideas and are on the back-foot.
65 and the Argentinians make a change, de Paul is replaced by Paerdes.
70 mins and Acuna wins a penalty after a foul on the edge of the box by Dumfries.
Messi steps up and its 2-0 to the Argentinians.
75mins and de Jong goes nose to nose with the goalie after a ball forward it gets a bit heated with some pushing and shoving and the referee shows more yellow cards. Depay being one of them.
Meanwhile someone ran on the pitch and were quickly removed.
77 minutes and both sides make subs, 2 for Argentina and Depay is replaced for the Dutch.
82 mins and a great cross is headed home by Weghorst can the Dutch come back.
84 mins and the Dutch are almost level a great strike is deflected into the side netting, the corner comes to nothing.
Argentina are on the back foot.
87 mins and Berghuis is booked for a foul on Messi, he unloads his thoughts about that and is lucky not to get sent off.
88 mins and a foul in front of the Dutch bench by Parades is bad enough, but he boots the ball straight at the Dutch bench which causes the Dutch subs to come off the bench and its all kicking off, Parades is booked., he’s lucky not to be sent off. It seems someone else was also booked.
10 minutes of extra time.
The Dutch win a free-kick in a dangerous position but Berghuis hits it straight at the wall.
Van Dijk is now booked for complaining about Argentinian time wasting.
Argentina are using all their dark arts in this one despite VAR and new rules on time wasting.
99 mins and a last chance for the Dutch as they win a free-kick on the edge of the D, Messi is booked.
An amazing short free-kick as Berghuis goes to shoot, but instead taps it to Weghorst who scores with virtually the last kick of the game Argentina are rocking. Otamendi was booked somewhere in all that as a melee followed.
6-5 in bookings as far as I can tell.
We have extra time.
103 minute and Otomendi has a half chance.
2nd half of extra time starts and Montiel comes on for Molina
Montiel is booked for complaining it seems.
Di Maria comes on for Martinez and Pezzella is booked for a foul
113 minute Argentina get a corner after a good block by van Dijk but it comes to nothing
115 and another Argentine corner after another goal bound block.
118 Martinez has a good strike saved by the goalie
119 A Messi strike goes out for a corner.
120 almost the last kick of the game ,Fernadez hits the post with a long range strike.
The Dutch haven’t been very brave in extra time.
We have penalties, the players look dead on their feet.
A good save from Martinez beats away van Dijks penalty.
Messi makes it 1-0 with a cheeky tap in
Martinez makes a 2nd great save from Berghuis
2-0 Paredes bangs it in
Koopmeiners makes it 2-1 before Montiel makes it 3-1
Weghorst makes it 3-2
Fernadez misses his completely still 3-2
de Jong puts his away and its 3-3
Martinez makes it 4-3 and Argentina go through, someone was booked before he took it
8-6 in bookings (plus one for the manager)
An interesting game of football all round for many different reasons and not just the football.
Netherlands (3-4-1-2) Noppert; Timber, Van Dijk, Ake; Dumfries, De Roon, F de Jong, Blind; Gakpo; Depay, Bergwijn.
Substitutes: Pasveer, Bijlow, De Ligt, De Vrij, L de Jong, Berghuis, Lang, Klaassen, Malacia, Janssen, Weghorst, Koopmeiners, Taylor, Simons, Frimpong.
Argentina (3-5-2) E Martinez; Romero, Otamendi, Lisandro Martinez; Molina, De Paul, Fernandez, Mac Allister, Acuna; Messi, Alvarez.
Substitutes: Armani, Rulli, Foyth, Tagliafico, Montiel, Paredes, Pezzella, Di Maria, Palacios, Correa, Almada, Gomez, Guido, Dybala, Lautaro Martinez.
Referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz (Spain)
Posted by the CSG’s World Cup Willie
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