By Samindra Kunti in Doha
December 13 – Ahead of Argentina’s semi-final clash with Croatia, Lionel Scaloni has defended his players following their controversial behaviour during their quarter-final victory against the Netherlands, saying it is “out of touch with reality.”
Referee Matieu Lahoz lost control of the match and brandished 17 yellow cards and one red card, a record for a World Cup match. He will not lead another match in Qatar, but Argentina’s players were accused of unsporting behaviour, even after the match.
“We have to remove this taboo that we do not know how to lose and we do not know how to win,” said Scaloni. “We lost our first game with Saudi Arabia and went quietly to the hotel to continue preparing for what was coming.”
“We won the Copa America in Brazil (last year) and I think you saw the most beautiful image of sportsmanship you could see, with Neymar, (Lionel) Messi, (Leandro) Paredes and other players sitting on the steps of the Maracana.”
Argentina began their World Cup campaign in dramatic fashion with a 2-1 defeat to Saudi Arabia, one of the all-time great upsets, but they rallied to advance from the group phase and eliminate Poland and the Netherlands to earn a last-four encounter with Croatia, a rematch of their 2018 group match which the Europeans won comprehensively, 3-0.
At the time, Jorge Sampaoli coached Argentina and their tournament quickly unravelled. In came Scaloni, who has done what none before him could: win a trophy and integrate Messi properly into the team. This time Argentina are in a better position, but they will have been warned after Croatia dumped Brazil out of the tournament in the quarter finals.
“It’s been four years but despite all of that, Croatia are in the final four so that means they have done really good work,” said Argentina defender Nicolás Tagliafico.
“There are some similarities but they will have different players with different characteristics. I think it will be a very different match to four years ago. We will use the experience from the previous match and make the most of it.”
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