Belgium coach fumes at ‘ordinary’ Argentina and the ref’s calls as his team’s bundled out

 July 06, 2014 6:25PM

Argentina hold off Belgium to secure semi-final spot 1:48

Gonzalo Higuain's early strike was enough to send Argentina through to the World Cup semi-finals as the South American side held off Belgium to claim a 1-0 win.

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THE 2014 World Cup has gone according to script, except for the back injury to Brazil star Neymar which has ended his tournament.

The four semi-final favourites prevailed, setting up two appetising Europe v South America semi-final stoushes, starting with a replay of the 2002 Brazil-Germany final.
The World Cup’s two dominant continents have won all 19 FIFA World Cups since the tournament began in 1930.
Europe has the narrowest edge over South America with 10 World Cup wins, led by Italy (four) and Germany (three wins), though Brazil’s five remains the record.

Belgium's coach Marc Wilmots unhappy with the refereeing in the loss to Argentina. Source: AFP

Belgium coach Marc Wilmots was unimpressed by Argentina, who won 1-0 in a tense quarter-final to set up a showdown with the Netherlands on Thursday.
Argentina is sweating on the scan results for Angel Di Maria’s thigh injury, after the midfielder hobbled off in the first half, with Sergio Aguero also absent yesterday.

Mark Rudan says all signs are positive for Argentina 5:15

Mark Rudan says the signs are very positive heading into the World Cup semi-finals for Argentina after their 1-0 quarter-final victory over Belgium.

Gonzalo Higuain had already put Argentina ahead by that stage with a predatory strike — his first of the World Cup — but Wilmots was fuming with their tactics.
“If I had played this way (like Argentina) I would have been destroyed by the Belgian press,’’ Wilmots said.
“We were not impressed by the Argentina, absolutely not, it’s just an ordinary team
“We’ve seen the experience of Argentina, they can break up the rhythm of the game, they take 30 seconds to do a throw in and the referee does nothing.
“They can break down the speed of the game. I was wondering who was favourite, who was making the game?”

Argentine fans take cheap shot at injured Neymar 0:32

A group of Argentina fans have refused to join the rest of the football world in sympathising with Brazil star Neymar following his back injury suffered against Colombia, instead mocking the star while holding aloft a fake spinal cord.

And contrary to Brazil coach Phil Scolari, who said stars such as Neymar were not being protected by referees, Wilmots said Lionel Messi was a protected species.
Messi, who had been man-of-the-match in all four of Argentina’s previous games, was ineffective as Belgium successfully closed down his space.
“I don’t want to be cry baby, but I’m noticing whenever there is a little foul, it’s always in favour of Argentina,’’ he said.
“Messi made three fouls and no yellow cards, this is the difference.
“I think that Messi is the star, the player giving the rhythm and he never loses the ball.
“But he made a couple of tackles and fouls but the referee never gave them against him.”