The Netherlands have matched the genius of Lionel Messi with former Burnley striker Wout Weghorst… and the most incredible free-kick of the entire tournament.
Argentina thought it was won. They were 2-0 up, cruising and even Virgil van Dijk was rattled, clashing with Leandro Parades. But Netherlands managed to pull one back towards the end – before an unbelievable set-piece routine.
The whole stadium thought Teun Koopmeiners would whip a left-footer over the wall. Oh, how wrong they were. Step forward Mr. Weghorst…
In an otherwise tepid first half, the difference simply had to be Lionel Messi. The little genius may not have scored the decisive opener but managed to thread the assist through the eye of a needle to open the scoring for the Albaceleste, as Nahuel Molina of Atletico Madrid finished the chance exquisitely. It was one of the most memorable assists of the World Cup so far and a fantastic finish to boot.
Messi had to have his name on the scoresheet too, of course. Denzel Dumfries brought down Marcos Acuna after 70 minutes for what was a stonewall penalty and of course, the captain was going to step up to take it. Calmly, Messi strode up to the ball and dispatched it with Dutch goalkeeper Andries Noppert rooted to the spot as the ball flew past him. With the goal, Messi netted the tenth World Cup goal of his career.
With the Netherlands trying to feel their way into the game rather than take it by storm, much of the attention centred on Spanish referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz. Sergio Aguero tweeted about the man in black, with Twitter joining in to deride Mateu Lahoz for wanting to be the centre of attention.
In true World Cup style, however, this was never going to be over when the Dutch pulled one back. What a match – and the winner of the Netherlands and Argentina faces Croatia in the semi-final next week.
