A year ago, Argentina eliminated the Netherlands on penalties in the quarter-finals of the World Cup, after an electric encounter. In the corridors, Lionel Messi verbally attacked Wout Weghorst.
Lionel Messi is not a particularly sanguine player. He has only taken two red cards during his entire career, one with Argentina (during his very first selection), another with FC Barcelona. However, it sometimes happens that the eight-time Ballon d’Or. It happened last year, on December 9, 2022, after the quarter-final of the World Cup between Argentina and the Netherlands.
The meeting was crazy: the Oranje came back from 0-2 to 2-2 in a few minutes thanks to a double from Wout Weghorst, and the Albiceleste had to go through the penalty shootout. The match was also electric, with tension fueled by certain pre-match declarations, and some gestures on the field, such as this ball struck by Leandro Paredes towards the Dutch bench, which caused a scuffle.
“Que miras, bobo?” »
In the corridors, after the match, there was this scene that has become legendary. In the middle of an interview with Argentine TV, Messi had released an insult towards Weghorst, who was staring at him from a few meters away. “ What are you looking at, stupid? What are you looking at ? “, replied the Argentine captain (“Que miras, bobo?” »in VO).
After receiving his last Ballon d’Or, Messi returned to this event, of which he is not very proud. “The previous days, they (the Dutch) started to make statements and look 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.remembers Messi.
Messi: “I didn’t like seeing myself like that”
“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 »continues the Albiceleste captain.
As for this story with Weghorst, Messi is not falling into pretense. “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…”
