Emiliano Martinez saved two penalties for the Argentinian national team side in their 4-3 win against Netherlands in the quarter-finals match of the ongoing FIFA World Cup tournament in Qatar on Friday, December 9.
The Aston Villa goalkeeper saved Virgil Van Dijk and Steven Berghuis‘ opening spot kicks to give his side the edge they needed during the tumultuous quarter-final encounter.
The entertaining encounter went into extra-time after two late goals from Wout Werghost brought the Dutch back into the contest. Molina and the iconic Lionel Messi had given the Argentine national team a 2-0 lead until they suddenly gave the game away in the concluding minutes of the match.
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Despite his heroics, Emiliano Martinez was expressed his disgust at the referee and the coach of the Netherlands team, Louis Van Gaal.
The Spanish referee showed 17 yellow cards and then a red card after the final whistle for Denzel Dumfries as the official lost control.
Neither side were happy with the referee, but Martinez accused him of being biased towards the Dutch and labelled him ‘useless’.
‘It was a tricky game and I thought we controlled the game really well,’ Martinez told beIN Sport. ‘We went 2-0 up, we basically controlled the game and the referee was giving everything to them.’
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‘All of a sudden they got a good header, a good flick, which I couldn’t see and then it turned upside-down.
‘The ref was giving everything to them. He gave 10 minutes [added time] for no reason, 10 minutes.
‘He was giving free-kicks outside the box for them two or three times – he just wanted them to score, that’s basically it. So hopefully we don’t have that referee anymore because he’s useless.’
