WATCH: Fight Breaks Out Between Argentina And Netherlands

Somehow, someway, a play in which seemingly the entire Dutch bench poured onto the pitch only resulted in one yellow card.

An Argentina player, Leandro Paredes, made two controversial tackles — the second of which was called for a foul — and then rocketed the ball into Dutch sideline. It’s unclear whether the Argentinian player knew where he kicked the ball in the moment, but the Dutch players surely took it as such.

In an otherwise tepid first half, the difference simply had to be Lionel Messi. The little genius may not have scored the decisive opener but managed to thread the assist through the eye of a needle to open the scoring for the Albaceleste, as Nahuel Molina of Atletico Madrid finished the chance exquisitely.

It was one of the most memorable assists of the World Cup so far and a fantastic finish to boot.

Messi had to have his name on the scoresheet too, of course. Denzel Dumfries brought down Marcos Acuna after 70 minutes for what was a stonewall penalty and of course, the captain was going to step up to take it. Calmly, Messi strode up to the ball and dispatched it with Dutch goalkeeper Andries Noppert rooted to the spot as the ball flew past him. With the goal, Messi netted the tenth World Cup goal of his career.

With the Netherlands trying to feel their way into the game rather than take it by storm, much of the attention centred on Spanish referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz. Sergio Aguero tweeted about the man in black, with Twitter joining in to deride Mateu Lahoz for wanting to be the centre of attention.

Argentina won on penalties and will face Croatia in the semi-final next week.

Watchvideo of the chaotic moment below:

Well… that escalated quickly! 😳#BBCFootball #BBCWorldCup pic.twitter.com/k2t1Or95gz

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) December 9, 2022

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