Argentina played, suffered and won to reach the semifinals of the World Cup

From Doha

The Netherlands (number 8 in the FIFA ranking) went from lowest to highest. They beat Senegal (18) in their debut, tied with Alfaro’s Ecuador (44), beat Qatar (50) without ruffled hair and played their best game against the United States (16) in the quarterfinals. Against Argentina, they played for the first time against a team in the top ten and could not win, but celebrated the tie on the hour that led to extra time as a victory. Of course, he was left empty-handed afterwards.

Argentina (3) worked in roller coaster mode: they lost to Saudi Arabia (51), played well in the second half against Mexico (13), very well against Poland (26) and more or less against Australia (38). The one in the Netherlands was his first game against a team in the top ten of the FIFA ranking. And it worked again with ups and downs until it ended up celebrating wildly the pass to the semifinal on the same day that Brazil got a return ticket.

History says that Argentina never lost to Spanish arbitration in the World Cup. Against Bulgaria in 1962 (1-0), against Haiti in 1974 (4-1), against South Korea in 1986 (3-1), against the Netherlands in 2006 (0-0) and now with Mateus Lahoz A difficult referee who lets them play and likes to be the protagonist, a Spanish friend announced before the game. He was right about wanting to be the protagonist. He let little play, cut a lot and gave an exaggerated ten minutes of extra time. Perhaps it is an exaggeration to hold him responsible for the anguish suffered.

Numbers and more numbers. They played for World Cups six times: a Dutch win in 1974; revenge in 78; The oranges won 2-1 in 1998; 0-0 in 2006, 0-0 again in 2014, with Chiquito Romero becoming a hero; and this time the one who became a hero was Dibu Martínez, who saved the first two penalties taken by the orange team and was key to the finish. Argentina could never beat him in the 90s, but who the hell cares about that detail?

The numbers don’t always go to the heart of the matter: 3, 5, 2 in the Netherlands formation and 3, 5, 2 in the Argentina formation. Like a mirror. It could also be interpreted as 5, 3, 2, in each other. Schemes that become more flexible when the ball starts rolling. One of the keys to the match, there were general coincidences, was in the rises of the Dutch full-backs Dumfries and Blind, who had been vital in the match against the United States, and that is why Scaloni opted for the 3/5 line and it came out perfectly . To the point that the orange wingers contributed little and the two from Argentina scored on both goals: Molina in the first after a masterful pass from Messi and Acuña in the second, causing the penalty that allowed Messi to score the second.

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The numbers do not say anything about everything that was suffered in the last stretch of the initial 90 minutes. Argentina was winning 2-0, he had been defending with the ball, which was the most advisable thing to do, but little by little he was putting his tail into the area pushed by his fear and the desperation of his rivals, who broke all his schemes and even sent him to Virgil van Dijk from 9. Discounted Weghorst, whose entry was fundamental for his team with a header. And at 101 minutes, in a debatable foul, the blackboard tie came, like a blow. Less than a minute remained for the 2-1 that led directly to the seventh game and it seemed that everything was collapsing.

But it turned out that in the extra time and, especially in the second part of those 30 additional hours, Scaloni’s team took center stage and was even able to finish it off at the end with a shot from Enzo Fernández who returned the post. The question returns: Was there a need to suffer so much? Didn’t he fall for the lead too quickly? It may be, but you also have to appreciate this team that recovered in adversity, that ended up pressing the rival when night came, that had the necessary courage to go looking for the 3-2 and did not achieve it in the game, but yes in penalties. And in balance, it is the most logical, the most fair.

The numbers that will be recorded in history say that Martínez saved two penalties, that Argentina scored four and the Netherlands, three. And that means that Argentina will play one of the semifinals against Croatia and that, in one of those, the next 18 will play the final and perhaps Messi will get the world title that he deserves more than anyone. Everything else is debatable.

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