World Cup, Argentina, the celebration against Holland and Messi’s words at the World Cup

Luckily, such a Leo Messi had never been seen before. Hands to the ears for the 2-0 goal, digs at Van Gaal on the pitch and in the post-match, teased him to an opponent (“What are you looking at, stupid?”) during an interview after Lautaro’s decisive penalty. The match between Argentina and the Netherlands was tense to say the least: the images that immortalize the moment in which Messi and his associates conquered the semi-final tell it, exulting in the faces of their opponents to make fun of them.

THE WORDS OF VAN GAAL

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The bad gesture of the Argentines comes from afar, even before the referee whistled the start of the match. In fact, on the eve of the match, Louis Van Gaal had thrown a couple of digs at Messi: “Leo? He can decide a match by himself, but when he doesn’t touch the ball it seems that his team plays with a man down – said the coach in the press conference – In the 2014 semi-final we lost on penalties, but he wasn’t able to make the difference during the previous 120 minutes”. The episodes in the field helped to warm up the spirits, because a series of unpleasant events was added to Van Gaal’s words. Leo’s exultation, Paredes’ nasty foul on Aké, the Argentines’ nervousness for the 2-2 immediately after the tenth minute of added time.

LEO’S WORDS

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At the end of the match, the cameras filmed Leo approaching Van Gaal’s bench: “You don’t talk anymore?”, he would have said to the coach, while Davids and the rest of the staff tried to push him away. “I didn’t like his words, an expert coach like him must respect his opponents – explained Messi at the end of the match-. I respect everyone and I demand that others do the same with me”. The speech would be understandable, but Messi didn’t limit himself to this: “Van Gaal boasts of playing a good game, but it’s not true. He throws in tall players and tries to reach them with long balls …”. Another dig, which after winning the semifinal he could have avoided.