Lionel Messi appeared to have several heated confrontations with Louis van Gaal after Argentina got a win over the Netherlands in a ill-tempered World Cup quarter-final.
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The Netherlands fought back from 2-0 down to level Friday’s game with the last kick of normal time, but lost on penalties.
Both teams clashed numerous times, with referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz showing a record breaking seventeen yellow cards to players & staff.
Even after the full-time whistle had gone, emotions continued to spill over, with Netherlands defender Denzel Dumfries even shown a second yellow and red for his antics.
But Argentina skipper Messi was also heavily involved in the fracas, clashing with Holland manager Van Gaal on the touchline, with coaching staff, including Edgar Davids, having to separate the two.
It is not clearly known what was said, though some have theorised that Messi was having a go at Van Gaal over comments he made in the build-up to the game.
‘It’s not that difficult to come up with an answer as to how to stop him,’ the 71-year-old said of Messi. ‘You might want to block and close the passing lines. I can’t see this creating too much of a hoo-ha.’
This was not the end of the matter still, as later in the tunnel Messi was being interviewed on live TV, when he appeared to lock eyes with an unseen individual, reported to be Van Gaal.
The 35-year-old superstar furiously asked: ‘What are you looking at? Go ahead, stupid.’
Then during the interview, he added: ‘Van Gaal says that they [Holland] play good football, but what he did was put tall people and hit long balls.’
Perhaps ironically, it was that same tactic that allowed the Dutch back into the game in the first place. Argentina will now play Croatia in the semi-finals on Tuesday.
