Nicolas Otamendi claimed that Argentina’s over-the-top celebrations within the faces of Holland was in response to the Dutch workforce’s intimidation ways, and new footage has supported the defender’s assertion.
Photographs of the South American champions celebrating wildly in entrance of their quarter ultimate rivals emerged after their dramatic penalty shootout win on Friday night time, with a variety of stars extra targeted on their opponents than their progress to the semis.
The Argentinians had been instantly hit with accusations of unsportsmanlike behaviour, however within the sport’s aftermath, former Man Metropolis star Otamendi stated the response was in response to Holland’s antics through the shootout.
Footage has proven how Dutch gamers tried to intimidate Lautaro Martinez within the shootout
Argentina obtained criticism for his or her wild celebrations in entrance of the Dutch facet on Friday
‘I celebrated in face as a result of there was a one Netherlands participant, who at each penalty kick we had, was coming and saying issues to one in all our gamers,’ he stated.
‘The image was taken out of context, and we celebrated in response to it.’
And now footage has supported Otamendi’s case, with no fewer than 4 Holland gamers trying to unsettle Lautaro Martinez earlier than his decisive spot kick on the Lusail Stadium.
After Luuk de Jong swept his penalty dwelling to maintain Holland alive, Denzel Dumfries, Wout Weghorst, Noa Lang and Frenkie De Jong broke off from the workforce huddle on the midway line to have fun the strike.
However Nicolas Otamendi claimed it was in response to Holland’s intimidation ways
Now, footage has proven how 4 gamers tried to unsettle Martinez earlier than his penalty
As they returned to their teammates, the quartet handed Martinez and aimed a couple of phrases in his route to ramp up the thoughts video games as Holland’s World Cup destiny laid within the arms of the Inter Milan striker.
However Martinez was not flustered by no matter his rivals needed to say, coolly hanging previous Andries Noppert to guide a semi-final date with Croatia.
Friday night time’s contest was a fraught affair the place tensions reached boiling level on a variety of events, particularly when Leandro Paredes began a brawl after belting the ball on the Dutch bench.
The 2 units of gamers additionally clashed after the ultimate whistle, and goalkeeper Emi Martinez was on the coronary heart of it as he launched abuse in direction of the opposition dugout. ‘Maintain your mouth shut you f***ing t***! I f***ed you twice!’ he stated.
He was not the one Argentina participant to battle to manage his mood as Lionel Messi was additionally livid and broke away from a TV interview to shout at one in all Holland’s employees: ‘What are you taking a look at? Idiot!’
Messi then went to confront Dutch coach van Gaal, with assistant coach Edgar Davids having to play peacemaker after a match filled with emotion.
Messi’s fury got here simply minutes after Argentina’s participant had rubbed salt into the injuries of their Dutch counterparts by working straight in entrance of them after their shootout win.
It was a tense affair on Friday and Emi Martinez was seen aiming a slur on the Dutch bench
Lionel Messi additionally bought right into a confrontation with Holland supervisor Louis van Gaal after the sport
A number of gamers made gestures in direction of the Dutch workforce who regarded devastated following their gut-wrenching defeat.
Whereas the match contained 4 objectives, it was removed from all about attacking aptitude and threatened to get uncontrolled at instances with each units of gamers clashing on a number of events.
Spanish referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz went over to each benches to attempt to calm issues down quite a few instances, however to no avail, and he was glad to point out playing cards with nice regularity.
Certainly, it was one thing of a miracle that nobody was despatched off till after the match had completed, when Dumfries was proven two yellow playing cards in a matter of seconds when he clashed with Argentina gamers.
