The Netherlands are going to face their toughest test at the FIFA World Cup till now, when they take on Lionel Messi Argentina in the quarterfinals. The ‘La Pulga’ and his Argentina are in full throttle with their eyes on the prize, having recovered stunningly from the shocking defeat at the hands of Saudi Arabia in the their tournament opener. Moreover, when Lionel Messi is in form, there’s hardly a team or a player who will want to go against him.
But Dutch goalkeeper Andries Noppert is relishing the challenge of facing the PSG superstar for the first time in his career, and that too at the biggest stage. Messi has been toying with the ‘keepers at the tournament so far, be it Mexico’s legendary Guillermo Ochoa or Australia’s Mat Ryan. While Poland’s Wojciech Szczęsny did succeed in keeping the talismanic forward at bay, he however had to put in a life’s hardwork to do so. Noppert is next now, who already is playing the mind games with the Argentine captain.
He also makes mistakes – Noppert aims dig at Lionel Messi
A new-look Netherlands team is in fine form under their old manager Louis van Gaal, who was here as well when the country last played at the World Cup in 2014. Although he resigned and took up club job after the 2014 World Cup, an unemployed Van Gaal was recalled by the Netherlands last year to lead them for the third time. The veteran coach has once again built a solid team with new faces as he hopes to steer them all the way in Qatar.
Andries Noppert was rested with the responsibility of the Netherlands’ No.1 spot by Van Gaal, who has showed his full faith in the Heerenveen player. The 28-year-old has managed to keep a couple of clean-sheets across four games for his team so far, while also having a shaky performance against the likes of Ecuador and the USA. However, he seems ready to take on seven-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi, as he said:
“He is a wonderful player, but its about the moment, he also makes mistakes, and we see it in the beginning of this tournament. He has appeared in this competition. He is a person, just like us. He is good, without a doubt, but he is also human.”
The Dutch shot-stopper is full of confidence ahead of the crunch game as can be seen from his words. However, so are his other teammates in Denzel Dumfries and Virgil van Dijk, who have played down the prospect of concentrating solely on ‘Lionel Messi’, and not his Argentina team who can cause more damage as a collective force. The Liverpool centre-back asserting his teammate Noppert’s comments had said:
“He [Messi] is one of the best players of all time. It is an honour to play against him. But it is not me against him, or the Netherlands against him, but the Netherlands against Argentina. And they have many more players who are world-class”.
The Netherlands have come up against Lionel Messi and his Argentina previously as well at FIFA World Cup, when the two sides contested the semifinals of the 2014 edition. Although the 2010 finalists were successful in keeping Messi at bay throughout the 120 minutes of football, they however fell in the penalty shoutout as Argentina prevailed to reach the final.
It was the end of Louis van Gaal with the Dutch national team as he then took the vacant Manchester United job. But the former Barcelona manager is back with the Oranje, as he finally hopes to have a last laugh over Messi by ending his dream of lifting the World Cup in Qatar by knocking his Argentina out here in the last-8.