Hello and welcome to Telegraph Sport’s live coverage of Holland vs Argentina, the fifth meeting between these two nations in the World Cup finals.
Their first meeting was in the group stage in 1974 at the height of the ‘Brilliant Oranje’, when Rinus Michels’ team won 4-0. Four years later, Argentina got their revenge at home by defeating the Netherlands 3-1 in the final.
They did not meet again for 20 years, when Dennis Bergkamp settled the quarter-finals with a sublime 90th-minute winner.
Daniel Passarella and Diego Maradona are the Argentine captains who have lifted the trophy, something Messi hopes to emulate as the pinnacle of a truly glorious career. The Dutch are yet to win the tournament, but have three runners-up finishes and two semi-finals since 1974,
Van Gaal’s decision to ditch the Dutch’s traditional attacking approach and employ a counter-attacking strategy has drawn the support of many of his compatriots, but he continues to insist he has the better tactics.
Asked how he planned to stop Lionel Messi, he said: “It would be quite stupid to reveal your own tactics.”
“But it’s not that hard to find an answer. You might have found an answer yourself. You might want to block and close the pass lines.”
In the last two World Cup meetings between Argentina and the Netherlands, in the group stage in 2006 and in a semi-final in 2014 that the Albiceleste won on penalties, neither team managed to score a goal in normal time or extension
Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said his team had been practicing spot kicks but hoped the game would not go down to a penalty shootout.
“They always do penalties before and after games, but it’s all about luck when it comes to the penalty shootout,” he said. “I hope we don’t go to the penalty shoot-out, we hope the game ends sooner.”
“We know we’re going to give it our all on the field. We know football can sometimes be very beautiful and sometimes it can be cruel.”