{"id":1263662,"date":"2022-12-10T00:15:16","date_gmt":"2022-12-10T00:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/12\/10\/martinez-heroics-help-argentina-into-world-cup-semis-after-penalty\/"},"modified":"2022-12-10T00:15:16","modified_gmt":"2022-12-10T00:15:16","slug":"martinez-heroics-help-argentina-into-world-cup-semis-after-penalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/12\/10\/martinez-heroics-help-argentina-into-world-cup-semis-after-penalty\/","title":{"rendered":"Martinez heroics help Argentina into World Cup semis\u00a0after penalty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"615\" height=\"409\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/0_GettyImages-1245489879.jpg\"   alt=\"\" title=\"0_GettyImages-1245489879\"\/><\/div>\n<p>Argentina\u2019s dream of clinching a first World Cup since 1986 remains alive after overcoming the Netherlands in a penalty shootout to seal their place in the semi-finals on a dramatic night at the Lusail Stadium, Qatar.<\/p>\n<p>Lautaro Martinez stepped up to score the decisive penalty after Emiliano Martinez saved spot-kicks from Virgil van Dijk and Steven Berghuis. The two sides could not be separated after extra time at 2-2.<\/p>\n<p>Goals in either half from Nahuel Molina and Lionel Messi had looked like safely securing the Albicelestes\u2019s place in the last four.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/22191989129,1002554\/MGL\/mgl_ado_atunwa_300x250 --><\/p>\n<p>Argentina\u2019s reward is a place in the last four with Croatia,\u00a0who earlier stunned Brazil.<\/p>\n<p>But the Netherlands fought back in extraordinary fashion, Burnley flop Wout Weghorst coming off the bench to score twice \u2013 the equaliser coming deep into stoppage time \u2013 and send the game into extra time.<\/p>\n<p>It had initially been a cagey affair \u2013 with the Netherlands dominating possession but offering little in attack \u2013 until 10 minutes before half-time, a moment of magic from Messi unlocked the Dutch defence. Picking the ball up from deep, he released Molina with an eye-of-the-needle pass and the 24-year-old poked it home.<\/p>\n<p>Messi went agonisingly close to doubling Argentina\u2019s lead after the restart, his terrific free-kick effort rippling the top of the net, but he finally grabbed the goal his performance warranted from the spot Marcos Acuna was fouled by Denzil Dumfries in the box.<\/p>\n<p>That looked set to be that \u2013 but Weghorst had other ideas. After being introduced with just 12 minutes of normal time to play, he glanced a header into the far corner to halve the deficit and give the Dutch faint hope.<\/p>\n<p>The indication of 10 additional minutes increased morale further, and they left their equaliser until 11 minutes had passed, with Weghorst slotting home from Teun Koopmeiners\u2019 ingenious free-kick delivery.<\/p>\n<p>Argentina were, understandably, shell-shocked, but they finally sprung back into life in the second period of extra-time, with Lautaro Martinez\u2019s goalbound shot blocked by Virgil van Dijk\u2019s chest before Enzo Fernandez rifled a shot against the post.<\/p>\n<p>Lionel Scaloni\u2019s side had been the better side throughout and, in the end, they ultimately got over the line by virtue of a penalty shootout, with Enzo Fernandez the only taker to miss from five spot-kicks, as Dutch manager Louis van Gaal\u2019s international career ends in defeat.<\/p>\n<p>            <!--  [embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=videoseries[\/embed]<!--\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>--><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"rfflM1oJrbo\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tourism: Natural Resources Ministry encourages Ghanaians to patronize re-opened Accra Zoo (9-12-22)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rfflM1oJrbo?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Argentina\u2019s dream of clinching a first World Cup since 1986 remains alive after overcoming the Netherlands in a penalty shootout to seal their place in the semi-finals on a dramatic night at the Lusail Stadium, Qatar. Lautaro Martinez stepped up to score the decisive penalty after Emiliano Martinez saved spot-kicks from Virgil van Dijk and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1263663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[5312,262,17541,20023,2914,29720,784],"class_list":["post-1263662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-argentina","tag-cup","tag-heroics","tag-martinez","tag-penalty","tag-semisafter","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1263662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1263662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1263662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1263662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}