As well as offering rarely seen drama, and a match that will go down in World Cup history, yesterday's World Cup quarter-final featured plenty of chaotic scenes.
No less than 15 yellow cards were handed out and there were several upset situations where the players rushed onto the pitch and pushed each other.
The referee Mateu Lahoz was hot on the ears and had to endure harsh criticism even afterwards.
- By far the worst referee in the WC, says Emiliano Martinez according to Voetbal International.
- I don't want to talk about the referee because you can't be honest, if you talk you get a warning.
Fifa should think about it.
You cannot appoint a referee who is not up to the task, says Lionel Messi according to Sport.
van Dijk: "Ask someone else"
When SVT Sport asked Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk about the referee's sentence, he replied:
- I am not going to comment on the referee's performance, you can ask someone else about that.
There were a lot of hot feelings in the match?
- Feelings are part of the game.
A penalty shootout can go either way, unfortunately it didn't go our way, so there are a lot of emotions right now.
Very disappointing.
But I'm proud of this group and now we get to build on this in the European Championship qualifiers and the Nations League in the summer, says van Dijk.
In the mixed zone, an irritated Lionel Messi is also said to have gone on a verbal attack, according to Miguel Delaney, well-respected football journalist at the UK's The Independent.
"Messi was just about to do an interview when he said 'what are you staring at you fool?'
to a person on the Netherlands staff,” Delaney tweets.