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A mouthwatering 2022 World Cup quarter-final match which promises goals takes place at the Lusail Iconic Stadium on Friday evening, as the Netherlands do battle with Argentina.
Louis van Gaal’s men overcame the USA 3-1 to book their spot in the last eight, while the South American champions got the better of Australia 2-1 to keep their hopes of glory alive.
Cody Gakpo’s hot streak in front of goal may have come to an end against the USA, but Van Gaal’s effervescent wing-backs shouldered the goalscoring burden in Saturday’s last-16 battle, where the Yanks failed to build on a fast start and were punished for it.
Denzel Dumfries provided identical assists for identical goals for Memphis Depay and Daley Blind in the first half, and while Haji Wright’s unorthodox flick gave the USA a glimmer of hope, Blind turned provider for the in-demand Dumfries to volley home unchallenged to settle the match.
Van Gaal did little to justify his claims that the Netherlands were not a “boring” side when the USA put them under the cosh in the opening exchanges, but Oranje sure did teach their American counterparts a lesson in ruthlessness to make the quarter-finals for the third time in a row.
Indeed, the Netherlands have now reached the last eight in four of their last five World Cup tournaments – the outlier being a last-16 elimination in 2006 – and they progressed to the semi-finals in both 2010 and 2014 before miserably failing to qualify for the Russia edition.
Not since 1994 have the 2010 runners-up failed to win a quarter-final match at the World Cup, and the Netherlands’ unbeaten streak in all competitions now stands at a whopping 19 matches, but something has to give when two attacking heavyweights battle for supremacy.
The script had been written for Lionel Messi to end his knockout hoodoo in his 1,000th career match, and the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner finally scored his first non-group stage World Cup goal in trademark Messi fashion against Australia, who did not go down waving the white flag.
The Paris Saint-Germain veteran found the back of the net with a low finish before Julian Alvarez robbed Mathew Ryan of the ball for Argentina’s second – much to the amusement of the goalkeeper’s Copenhagen rival Kamil Grabara – before Craig Goodwin’s deflected strike gave Australia dreams of an improbable turnaround.
The Socceroos very nearly did the unthinkable through Newcastle United-bound teenager Garang Kuol in the final few seconds, but Emiliano Martinez produced a vital save to send Argentina through to the last eight, albeit in very nervy fashion.
Argentina most recently progressed from the quarter-finals in 2014 en route to finishing as runners-up, but they had lost their last three ties in the last eight before that in 1998, 2006 and 2010, and their hopes of glory have ended at the hands of European teams nine times in a row since the inaugural 1930 edition.
Previous meetings between the Netherlands and Argentina have produced some of the greatest moments in World Cup history and the pair look well matched going into Friday’s quarter-final in Qatar.
Johan Cruyff introduced the world to Total Football during a 4-0 thrashing of Argentina in 1974, but Argentina got their revenge on the Dutch in the final four years later to claim World Cup glory.
A generation on, Dennis Bergkamp produced one of the competition’s greatest ever goals when his iconic 90th-minute strike put the Netherlands through to the semi-finals of France ’98 at Argentina’s expense.
However, the last two meetings have been tense, goalless affairs and both sets of players this week will head into the 2022 quarter-finals knowing that they might have to produce another moment of World Cup magic to secure a semi-final place.
