© EPA-EFE
Referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz played a tricky role in the quarter-final between the Netherlands and Argentina on Friday night. Everyone felt the damage from the Spaniard’s leadership, until the Orange finished the game on a ten-fold high after Denzel Dumfries received a second yellow card in the penalty shootout.
Jay van den Langenberg
The puppets danced several times during the competition and some riots threatened to get out of hand. Referee Mathieu Lahoz therefore had to withdraw all the stops to maintain order on the field. The Spanish referee eventually drew nineteen yellow cards, one less than the twenty (including four red) that Russian Valentin Ivanov distributed in 2006 in the Netherlands – Portugal.
After the penalty shootout, Lahoz gave a second yellow card (and, accordingly, a red card) to Denzel Dumfries, who responded aggressively to the provocation of Argentine Nicolas Otamendi. Dumfries and No Lang had been shown yellow cards earlier in the penalty shootout for trying to distract the Argentine players.
Controversial decisions
Just everyone questioned the leadership of the Spanish repertoire. The Netherlands complained about the suspicious penalty kick – according to Van Gaal – which was whistled in favor of Argentina in the second half. The Argentines did not understand why the referee had allowed at least ten minutes to pass at the end of the second half and “gifted” the Netherlands a free kick in the last minute of extra time, from which Weghorst scored the unexpected equalizer.
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