Argentina sinks the Netherlands in shootout to advance to the World Cup semi-finals

And for 100 minutes on Friday night, inspiration was winning.

With a game-changing assist pulled out of thin air and a goal from the penalty spot, Lionel Messi had Argentina 2-0 up and seemingly cruising into the World Cup semi-finals. Even when the Netherlands pulled a goal back with 7 minutes to go, Messi and his teammates remained in control. But in the 11th minute of stoppage time, Dutch tactics struck back with a vengeance. The Netherlands tied the game at 2-2 with one of the most stunning trick plays in World Cup history.

Argentina had it all to do again, and in a rare display of total calm, it did. The team finally muscled past the Dutch 4-3 in a penalty shootout to reach the semi-finals for the first time since 2014. Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez saved the first two efforts from the Netherlands, Messi rolled in his, and Argentina had survived.

But fans inside the stadium here Friday had already begun celebrating an hour before kick-off, because Croatia’s quarterfinal victim happened to be Argentina’s most hated rival, Brazil.

So instead of an all-South American semi, Argentina will take on the side that defeated it 3-0 in the group stage at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

The circumstances in 2022, though, are a little different.

This time, Argentina isn’t having an existential crisis. The team got that one out of the way two weeks ago with its opening-match upset loss to Saudi Arabia. What remains is a picture of solidity built around a happy and confident Messi, who is reminding the world that when the games get tighter and the stakes higher, he only becomes more dangerous.

Messi always looks brilliant in a blowout, when he’s setting off fireworks left and right. But the moments when he truly flashes his genius come when matches are jammed up and defences are suffocating — which, ironically, is the only way teams can try to contain him.

For most of the evening, the Netherlands did it perfectly. And even in the 33rd minute, when Messi changed this World Cup semi-final, the Dutch did little wrong. He was surrounded by orange jerseys when he picked up the ball around 30 yards from goal. For anyone else, there wasn’t a passing lane to find. But as he drifted left with the ball at his feet, Messi glimpsed Nahuel Molina making a run to his right. With the eyes of four Dutch defenders locked on him, Messi poked a no-look, reverse pass through the only gap between them – and through Nathan Ake’s legs. All Molina had to do then was slot it past Dutch goalkeeper Andries Noppert to put Argentina in charge.

Messi then doubled his side’s lead in the 73rd minute with a penalty.

During so much of Messi’s Argentina career, the pressure that came with his teammates — and an entire country — just waiting for him to produce magic out of nowhere was the team’s greatest flaw. Knowing that something exceptional was always possible, they sat in mediocrity until Messi made it happen.

The difference now, at the age of 35 and in his 17th year in blue-and-white stripes, is that Messi’s teammates have at last come to expect the extraordinary. It no longer feels like they’re passengers as Messi creates every chance and also has to finish them by himself. Molina had never scored for Argentina before Friday’s quarterfinal, but he continued his run into the box, even when it seemed like Messi was running into traffic. Then he made something happen anyway.

But anyone expecting 90 minutes of total serenity is clearly not familiar with Argentina’s national soccer team. The customary panic arrived 10 minutes from the end of regulation as tempers flared, passing broke down, and a 6-foot-5 Dutchman named Wout Weghorst scored a header.

Now it was time for Messi’s teammates to hold up their end of the bargain — one last spell of backs-to-the-wall defence against a Dutch air raid for a place in the semi-finals. Not for the first time, they let him down.

As time expired, the Netherlands won a free kick 25 yards from the goal. The plan involved lining it up as if it were a traditional shot. Dutch midfielders Cody Gakpo and Teun Koopmeiners stood over the ball. But instead of bending it at the goal, Koopmeiners disguised his run up and poked a low pass to the 6-foot-5 Wout Weghorst who was spinning away from his marker in the box. Koopmeiners found Weghorst and in one swift motion, Weghorst turned, shrugged off Enzo Fernandez, and fired low into the corner of the Argentine net.

Argentina’s players had no idea what hit them. But Messi’s performance had given them a cushion. Over the next 30 minutes, they recovered from the sucker punch. And when the game gave Messi’s teammates another chance to repay him, they didn’t blow it again.

-The Wall Street Journal