After an incredible victory in the quarter-finals, Argentina reached the last four in the Qatar WC 2022. Messi-Martinez defeated the Netherlands in a tiebreaker. However, refereeing has been negative in this match. After the game, Lionel Messi reacted angrily to the referee Antonio Mateo Lahos. Spanish referee Antonio Mateo Lahos showed yellow cards to 16 coach-footballers. He whistled a total of 48 fouls. Lahoz also showed the card to Messi once. Even after winning the match, Messi expressed his displeasure with the referee and said, "I think FIFA should not give this referee such responsibility in this type of match. Because he doesn`t deserve it.`
Reacting to winning the match, Messi said, `I feel thrilled, delighted. The match was not supposed to go to extra time or penalties. We had to suffer because in the injury time we played poorly. But we got our desired win, which is great.` Emiliano Martinez, who became Argentina`s hero by stopping 2 penalties in the penalty shootout, is also angry with the Spanish referee. He said, `He is the worst referee in the World Cup ever. He is very stubborn. If you say something to him, he answers it very badly.`
The Argentinian goalkeeper also found a reason for such bad refereeing. "I think Spain has already left," said Martinez. He, therefore, wanted us to leave very much.` Argentina`s opponent in the semi-final is Croatia. Who won over Brazil in the quarter-finals. Messi has given an advance warning about the opponent of the semi. He said, `Croatia showed they are a very good team. Once they played on par with Brazil. This team has been playing under the same coach for a long time. They know each other very well.`
JH
