ÜThe Brazilian newspapers were mostly shocked when the Seleção lost to Croatia in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Qatar on penalties (1-1 aet, 2-4 pts). “Neymar’s bewitched generation is still empty-handed,” wrote Folha de Sao Paulo. “Estado de Minas” judged: “The dream of the hexa is over.”
The Argentinian gazettes, on the other hand, were overjoyed after the 4:3 penalty shoot-out against the Netherlands (2:2 aet). “La Nacion” fabled: “One more night for the story. Messi, the best of all, puts the world at his feet.” “De Volkskrant” attested the dramatic quarter-finals to be “total football madness”. The international press reviews at a glance:
Brazil:
“Folha de Sao Paulo”: “Nightmare quarterfinals. Neymar’s bewitched generation is left empty-handed. The sixth star seems out of reach.”
“Zero Hora”: “A blow to the soul. The film, which has been running since 2006, repeats itself again. The dream of hexa here in the Middle East is fading into dust. Why did we allow a counterattack? Why is the second youngest shooting first? We now have plenty of time to find answers for this.”
“Lance”: “The Seleção didn’t understand the game and did everything Croatia wanted.”
“Correio Braziliense”: “The Tite era ended in a melancholic way. The curse against Europeans continues. The dream of the hexa ended at the post.”
“Estado de Minas”: “The dream of the hexa is over. Mistakes in the end, in the strategy and in the concentration against a brave and very experienced Croatia culminated in Brazil’s World Cup elimination.”
Argentina:
“Ole”: “Celebration, trainer, emotions and the greatest Argentine dream in the world.”
“La Nacion”: “One more night for the story. Messi, the best of them all, puts the world at his feet.”
“Clarin”: “A great Messi, a gigantic Dibu. Without suffering it is not Argentina.”
Spain:
“Marca”: “Messi and Argentina, suffering in the semifinals. Goalkeeper ‘Dibu’ Martinez was the great hero of the Argentina national team. No human being could have imagined what Weghorst’s substitution would do. Messi keeps dancing, he’s now two games away from his longed-for World Cup.”
“AS”: “MESSI LAUGHS. The Netherlands died upright, they reacted in time with long crosses in the middle. A poor refereeing by Mateu Lahoz. A big one, van Gaal, leaves the football stage, another one who is even bigger stays: Messi.”
“Sports”: “MY GOD! Argentina advance on penalties after sacrificing a 2-0 lead. Messi was the leader of the Albiceleste and now he’s a little bit closer to his dream. The unexpected hero became ‘Dibu’ Martinez, who kept his shop together. Weghorst had nobody on the bill.”
“El Mundo Deportivo”: “MESSI DANCES. Messi and ‘Dibu’ take Argentina to the semifinals. Weghorst almost became a spoilsport. Argentina deserved to go through, even if the team took a nap towards the end of the game. Argentina has a genius who wants to be world champion.”
Netherlands:
“De Volkskrant”: “Netherlands-Argentina was total football madness.”
“AD.nl”: “Oranje rightly eliminated, although Plan B gave hope again. Louis van Gaal set the bar high for the Dutch team at this World Cup. The Bond coach wanted nothing less than the world championship title at this World Cup. But then on Friday evening Oranje had to pass against Argentina.”
NRC: “Even opportunistic fight football wasn’t enough for Oranje. If you just look at the result, you can summarize that Oranje played a good tournament. The Netherlands have too few football players of stature in Virgil van Dijk, Frenkie de Jong and Memphis Depay. It was then also difficult to understand why van Gaal kept claiming that he could become world champion.”
