Lionel Messi returned to the quarter-final of the World Cup against the Netherlands, where he did not like certain behaviors… including his own.
In his interview with France Football after the Ballon d’Or, Lionel Messi looks back on his 2022-2023 season and of course talks about Argentina’s victory in the World Cup. The former Barcelona player focuses in particular on this tense quarter-final, won on penalties against the Netherlands, in an electric climate.
“The previous days, they (the Dutch) started making statements and looking for us a little, in particular the coach (Louis van Gaal) and the player who presented himself at a press conference the day before the match (Memphis Depay). And then it was a World Cup quarter-final, a big match, between Argentina and the Netherlands.summarizes Messi.
“We wanted to make Argentina look like the villain of the story…”
“There were some strange situations in the game, with some players at home behaving unfairly, particularly during the penalty shootout. After this match, we wanted to make Argentina look like the villain of the story, but a lot of things happened that evening… In these moments of tension, everyone reacts in their own way, but the rivalry must be stop at the edge of the field »explains the Albiceleste captain.
Everything should have stopped after the final whistle, but it didn’t. Messi himself had a verbal altercation in the mixed zone with Wout Weghorst, to whom he threw a phrase (“Qué miras bobo?”, “What are you looking at, idiot?”) which has become cult. “It’s because of everything that happened before and during the match, confides Messi. They talked a lot before and some picked up on my reaction. I admit that I didn’t like seeing myself like that, the way I reacted, but these are tense moments and it can happen…”
