He said in Spanish, via AlbicelesteTalk, "QUE MIRAS BOBO JAJAJAJAJAJAJAA BASADO MI CAPITÁN (Who are you looking at? Go ahead you stupid)." Soon the star player was asked to calm down by the presenter.
The Argentine star player even said that he felt "disrespected" by Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal and even blasted the referee post the team's win against the Dutch 4-3 on penalties in the quarterfinal at Lusail Iconic Stadium in Qatar on 9 December.
Initially the match was going fine, and Messi assisted Argentina's first goal for Nahuel Molina. Later in the 73rd minute, he scored a second from the penalty spot as Argentina took a seemingly commanding 2-0 lead in the 73rd minute.
But, the situation soon changed as Dutch substitute Wout Weghorst scored two consecutive goals in the 83rd and 90+11th minute.
ALSO READ: Argentina beat the Netherlands and go into the semis after late night drama
Conflict, confront:
Following this, the game became increasing heated and at one point Leandro Paredes blasted the ball in the direction of the Netherlands bench. This infuriated Dutch captain Virgil van Dijk and he responded by knocking Paredes to the ground. Then the confrontation between the both the teams even halted the game for few minutes.
When the penalties were over and Argentina defeated the Dutch by 4-3, Messi directed a celebration toward the Dutch coaching staff . He also confronted Van Gaal post the match.
"I feel disrespected by Van Gaal after his pregame comments and some Dutch players spoke too much during the game," ESPN quoted Messi as saying.
Prior to the game, Gaal suggested ahead of the quarterfinal that Messi did little to help his team when they don't have the ball.
"Van Gaal sells that he plays good football and then he puts forwards in the box and starts throwing long balls," Messi reverted back on Van Gaal's tactics. "We deserved to go through and that's what happened."
Not only Messi, even the Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez had strong words for Van Gaal.
"I heard Van Gaal saying 'we've got an advantage on penalties, if we go to penalties we win,'" Martinez said. "I think he needs to keep his mouth shut."
Ire against referee:
Both Messi and Martinez opened up against Spanish referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz.
"I don't want to talk about the referee because you can't be honest," Messi told Argentine TV.
"If you talk they sanction you; FIFA must think about it, they can't put a referee who isn't up to the task for these instances."
"I thought we controlled the game really well. We went 2-0 up but the ref started to give everything to them," Martinez added.
"All of a sudden a good header for them and all turned upside down. The ref added 10 minutes for no reason," he said, "He gave free kicks outside the box for them two, three times. He just wanted them to score, that's basically it, so hopefully we don't have that ref anymore. He's useless."
On upcoming match's difficulties:
Argentina's win against Dutch puts them through to their fifth World Cup semifinal now. Also, this is second in the past three tournaments. Argentina will face Croatia on 14 December at 12:30 am (IST).
"We didn't expect to go to extra time, let alone to penalties," ESPN quoted Messi as saying, as he added, "We suffered, but we are playing a World Cup quarterfinal.
"Argentina shows game by game that we know how to play. We came out with intensity and desire and we understood the moments of the game," Messi said.
"We needed this and we are happy the whole country is celebrating now. [Martinez] once again showed that he's the best saving penalties. Croatia is a great team. They move the ball very well, they have been working together for a long time, it will be very hard."
With agency inputs.
