Netherlands v Argentina: World Cup 2022 quarter-final – live

by

Key events

This is a great read

Good morning. Who better to look forward to these quarter finals, back to previous World Cup finals, talk Messi, Maradona, Mbappe, Bellingham, Kane, Neymar and more than Jorge Valdano. Here’s the interview. https://t.co/VO9nwPOdj8

— Sid Lowe (@sidlowe) December 9, 2022

Team news: Argentina switch to a back three

Both teams make one change from their second-round games. Steven Bergwijn replaces Davy Klaassen in the Netherlands team, which presumably means Cody Gakpo will drop back to play as the No10.

Lisandro Martinez comes into the Argentina side in place of Papu Gomez. That should mean a switch to a back three.

Netherlands (3-4-1-2) Noppert; Timber, Van Dijk, Ake; Dumfries, De Roon, Klaassen, De Jong, Blind; Gakpo; Depay, Bergwijn.
Substitutes: the rest

Argentina (3-5-2) E Martinez; Romero, Otamendi, Lisandro Martinez; Molina, De Paul, Fernandez, Mac Allister, Acuna; Messi, Alvarez.
Substitutes: the rest

Referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz (Spain)

BRAZIL ARE OUT OF THE WORLD CUP!

Och my days. Rodrygo and Marquinhos failed to score, and Croatia – just as in 2018 – have won back-to-back penalty competitions to reach the semi-finals.

Croatia v Brazil has gone the distance. Join Scott Murray this instant.

Argentina: the story so far

  • Saudi Arabia 1-2

  • Mexico 2-0

  • Poland 2-0

  • Australia 2-1

Netherlands: the story so far

  • Senegal 2-0

  • Ecuador 1-1

  • Qatar 2-0

  • USA 3-1

Netherlands v Argentina is a classic World Cup fixture: 1974, 1978, 1998, 2006, 2014 and now 2022. Luke McLaughlin has taken a trip down memory lane, just for you.

The winners of this game will play… actually we still don’t know, because Croatia have just equalised in the 117th minute! Join Scott Murray for the denouement.

Preamble

This World Cup ain’t big enough for both fairtytales. For reasons that would be intelligence-insulting to explain, it will be a tremendous story if either Louis van Gaal or Lionel Messi win the World Cup. But one of them has to leave the competition tonight.

Netherlands v Argentina is such a tough game to call. Both have looked good at times, particularly when scoring silky team goals against the USA and Poland respectively. But at others – especially against Ecuador and Saudi Arabia – they’ve looked a level below the big boys.

Neither team has played an elite opponent yet, so we’re still not sure how good they are, or how realistic it is to speculate that Van Gaal or Messi will win the World Cup. Over the next two hours – don’t be surprised if it’s three – we might find out.

Kick off 7pm GMT, 10pm in Qatar, 8pm in Amsterdam, 4pm in Buenos Aires

Leave a Comment