Foreign media are short of words after ‘amazing’ duel Orange: ‘Legendary penalty thriller’ | Orange

The Argentinian Weekly Perfil calls the match “the best played so far at the World Cup in Qatar”. But although the Dutch national team regained control in the second half, the Argentinians still owe the victory to the Dutch who seemed to be taking a ‘siesta’. In the end, the Argentines triumphed through “self-love, heroism and good football”.

The sports paper Olé raves about La Albiceleste, the national football team. Solidarity, committed, sometimes moving. They all stand, they all go to the extreme and beyond, they all run.” All in all, the sports newspaper has little to say about the Dutch performance. “Now the Argentines await a confrontation with the hard Croatia,” said Olé.

All Argentine media, including major dailies Clarin and La Nacion, talk about the confrontation between Argentinian captain Lionel Messi and Dutch substitute Wout Weghorst, who brought the Netherlands back into the game with two goals. After the match, a rare hot-headed Messi interrupted an interview to bite Weghorst, who was off screen, in Spanish: ,,What are you looking at, idiot? Go away.”

The bullying mood of Messi, who also aimed at the Dutch national coach Louis van Gaal afterwards, has to do with the unfriendly atmosphere that prevailed during and after the match. No less than seventeen yellow cards fell in the heated quarter-final. After the penalty shootout, referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz gave a second yellow card to Denzel Dumfries, who reacted furiously to a provocation from Argentinian Nicolás Otamendi.

BBC analyst and former footballer Martin Keown speaks of an ‘epic tie’. ,,It was typical for this World Cup. You couldn’t tell who would win until the very end.” His colleague Alan Shearer is clear about Argentina: “It’s not a good team, but they have a genius up front.”

The Guardian reporter wonders if he’s ever seen a match like this before. “It was very disappointing in many ways, but it had drama and some great passes from Messi and Teun Koopmeiners.” In addition, he was amazed at the typical English football that the Orange played at the end to force the equalizer.

Germany’s Bild headlines that Messi’s title dream is still alive and that “the world enjoys his pass” at 1-0. “Nerves were too much for the Netherlands after the super comeback,” said the boulevard magazine.

The Portuguese sports newspaper A Bola also calls it an amazing match. “Not much happened in the first half. The Netherlands was more concerned with preventing a goal than participating in the game.” The Portuguese were more positive about the second part of the match. “It was only after the 2-2 that the Netherlands started playing football and they were ironically successful when they started playing in a different system.” The second goal in particular stood out. “An incredible goal from the laboratory. Koopmeiners plays a free kick in between to Weghorst who shoots the ball in.”

The Spanish sports newspaper Marca applauds Weghorst’s ‘miracle goals’ and, like various Argentinian media, talks about the dissatisfaction of the Argentines with the Spanish referee Mateu Lahoz. “Argentina could not have wished for better motivation towards the Netherlands than the elimination of arch-rival Brazil,” writes El País. Brazil lost to Croatia earlier on Friday.

The French L’Équipe talks about the ‘incredible equalizer’ of the Netherlands, while the Belgian Sporza still reverberates from the ‘legendary penalty thriller’ between the two countries. Nevertheless, Sporza is critical of wasted ball possession by the Netherlands. ,,The game under conductor Frenkie de Jong: too good. The boys tapped the leather back and forth as the Dutch school prescribes, but achieved nothing with it.” Weghorst’s equalizer is called ‘a legendary goal’.

“Argentina almost got off easy,” writes the New York Times. Messi and his companions were calmly on their way to the semi-finals, according to the American newspaper. Until Wout Weghorst shook them awake. And Teun Koopmeiners ‘with his razor-sharp imagination’ ensured the equalizer. “This was anything but the easy way.”

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