Lionel Messi Regrets the Heated Exchanges Against Netherlands at the Qatar World Cup

Lionel Messi, the World Cup winner regrets snide exchanges with Netherlands players and coach for the action-packed quarterfinal held in Qatar.

Written by: Arjita Gupta

Edited by: Krutarth Ghosalkar

Last Updated: January 31, 2023

In an interview with radio Urbana Play of Buenos Aires on Monday, Lionel Messi the captain of Argentina who won the World Cup regretted the heated exchange between him, the Netherlands coach, and the players in the much-talked-about quarterfinal match in Qatar in December 2022. Messi was guilty about the clash with his Dutch counterparts wherein the South Americans had bagged a penalty shootout. In the event, Messi earned a yellow card for dissent among the record 17 yellow cards.

As Lionel scored in regular time, he cupped both hands to ears while standing in front of Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal. Also, once the game ended, he insulted Wout Weghorst, the striker who scored two goals in regulation, by gesticulating toward the Netherlands bench. The soccer arena, like any sport, is full of ups and downs, where players sometimes lose their cool and do things they are later not so content with. The same happened with Lionel Messi.

In the interview, Messi said that he did not like what he did and he was not happy about what occurred later. There was a lot of tension and nerves at the moment. The incident was spontaneous and he had not planned any of it. People react in certain ways and it is something that just happens. With so many yellow cards issued, the quarterfinal match became nothing less than a controversy.

Before the exchange took place, the Dutch coach and his players were all prepared for a penalty shootout, better than the rivals. Van Gaal also said that Lionel did not touch the ball in the 2014 World cup semifinal between both teams. Argentina however had won the game in the tie over the penalty shootout. Messi said that his moment was natural about Weghorst for the current match in reference, but with Van Gaal, his teammates had asked to stimulate him.

Lionel consented that he reacted in a way he did not like, certainly when he does not mean to leave an image like that, but things happen in moments of tension like these where the player does many things due to being in a mixed zone. At the same time, Messi believed they were better than the rivals, and market Mexico as the toughest of the opponents. He also felt it was the worst match they played though it did not matter if they won it or not.