Argentinian legend Lionel Messi is the individuals’s champion however the famous person has had his nostril out of joint after his nation’s shootout win over the Netherlands on Saturday morning (Australian time).
Messi’s Argentina is thru to the World Cup semi-finals and can face Croatia for a spot within the decider after a pair of tense shootouts.
Messi is named a reasonably cool buyer and lives as non-public a life as a person with 386 million Instagram followers, arguably one of many best gamers to ever dwell and a billionaire can dwell.
But he was removed from thrilled after his facet survived by way of to the penultimate match of the World Cup after a 2-all draw led to a 4-3 shootout win.
However, Messi was livid after his facet led 2-0 till seven minutes from time when Wout Weghorst scored his first, earlier than including a second within the eleventh minute of damage time to pressure extra-time.
The World Cup is without doubt one of the solely titles Messi hasn’t claimed in his exceptional profession however the win over the Netherlands was as spiteful because it will get.
There had been 15 playing cards within the recreation, eight for Argentina, six yellows and a purple for the Dutch. But there have been additionally some playing cards flashed within the path of the benches all through the match.
After the sport, the groups got here collectively as soon as once more.
Safe to say, there’ll be no Christmas playing cards between the groups this 12 months.
But whereas Messi was speaking to Argentinian media on discipline after the sport, a rival believed to be Weghorst, who reportedly wished to shake palms and swap jerseys, was brutally rejected by Messi.
“What you looking at, idiot? Go on, f**k off over there” he yelled at a participant recognized as Weghorst earlier than the presenter tried to present Messi the prospect to settle down.
Weghorst later mentioned: “I went to shake his hand after the game. He has not accepted it and has said something rude to me, but I do not understand Spanish very well. I’m very disappointed.”
Messi raged on the Dutch coach as effectively, claiming disrespect from Louis van Gaal.
He let Van Gaal know as effectively, giving him and Dutch assistant Edgar Davids each barrels as he left the bottom.
“I feel disrespected by Van Gaal after his pregame comments and some Dutch players spoke too much during the game,” Messi informed reporters.
“Van Gaal tells that he plays good football and then he puts forwards in the box and starts throwing long balls.”
The Dutch weren’t the one ones on the Messi hit record both as he blasted referee Antonio Mateu.
“After they got the draw I felt a lot of anger,” he mentioned.
“I don’t want to talk about the referee, because they immediately reprimand you or sanction you, but I think people saw what happened.
“FIFA has to review that, it can’t give a referee like that a match of this importance when they’re not up to the task.
“We didn’t have a great game, and then the referee sent it to extra time. He was always against us. In the last play (from which the Dutch scored), it was not a foul.”
Messi was not alone in his fury as his teammates gave the Dutch a serve after the match.
Argentinian and Aston Villa goalie Emi Martinez blasted Van Gaal, shouting: “I f**ked you twice, you b***h,” after two massive saves and “Keep your mouth shut f**king t**t” to the Dutch bench.
He added within the press convention: “I heard van Gaal saying they had an advantage in penalties and that he thought if it went to penalties, they’d win. I think he needs to keep his mouth shut.”
He additionally blasted the referee, calling him “the worst referee in the tournament”.
“The ref was giving everything for them. They got a good header, a good flick, I couldn’t see it and all of a sudden it turned upside down. The ref was giving everything for them,” he mentioned.
“He gave ten minutes (added time) for no reason. He gave a free kick outside the box for them for no reason two or three times. He wanted them to score, that’s basically it. Hopefully we don’t have that ref anymore because he’s useless.”
Originally printed as ‘Go on, f**k off’: Lionel Messi takes intention at rival on dwell TV