Lionel Messi paid tribute to his country’s one of the finest footballer’s Diego Maradona, who passed away two years ago, after Argentina’s quarterfinals win over the Netherlands at the World Cup. Argentina are now back in the semifinals of the competition after their last appearance at this stage came in 2014, and face a strong Croatia side who knocked out their neighbors Brazil in the last-16.
However, Argentina compromised their two-goal lead against the Netherlands during the showdown at Lusail Stadium, as the game went all the way to the penalty shootouts. The Netherlands made a dramatic comeback from two goals down in the dying minutes to force an extra-time, which couldn’t yield a winner. It took penalties to separate the two sides, where Argentina prevailed. An ecstatic Lionel Messi, then dedicated his team’s win to the late Maradona and believes ‘his soul is pushing them from the heaven’.
Diego is watching from heaven: Lionel Messi after Argentina overcome Dutch challenge in quarterfinals
Lionel Messi was the man-of-the-match [of course], after his superb individual display helped Argentina thwart the Netherlands’ plans of completing a comeback. The 35-year-old brilliantly set-up his side’s opening goal with a genius of a pass, and converted a second-half penalty to almost kill the game. But the Netherlands fought valiantly to score two goals in the final few minutes to take the game to the extra time.
With no one then finding a winner in the extra 30 minutes of play, this quarterfinal too was going to be decided with a penalty shootout after one ensued between Croatia and Brazil. Argentina finally triumphed as their shot-stopper Emiliano Martinez stepped up to keep the Netherlands’ first two penalties out. It was all Argentina then despite one miss by Enzo Fernandez, as a relieved and elevated Messi told the reporters after the game:
“Diego [Maradona] is watching us from heaven. He is pushing us and I really hope this stays the same until the end. When Lautaro [Martinez] scored and we qualified there was a huge joy. It was a weight off our chest. It was a very hard match. From the beginning it was a really tough match, we knew it would be this way.
“We were really happy and we enjoyed that moment and that’s what we can see here and also in Argentina because people are really happy, they are really excited and they are full of enthusiasm. The Dutch team made trouble for us with long balls and a lot of players in the area. In the end they drew and we suffered. But we were able to seal our passage to the semi-finals, which is what we wanted.”