It wasn’t an easy World Cup for Lautaro Martinez at Qatar 2022. An ankle injury prevented him of becoming the star alongside Lionel Messi in the tournament and also opened the door for Julian Alvarez’s emergence as the revelation for Argentina.
Nevertheless, working through pain for a speedy recovery, Lautaro Martinez left his mark with the decisive penalty to eliminate the Netherlands during the quarterfinals and with the shot which helped Lionel Messi to score the 3-2 in the final against France.
Now, still processing such an amazing achievement, Lautaro Martinez sent a subtle message to all those who criticized Argentina and their triumph in the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Lautaro Martinez defends Argentina with a message for France and the Netherlands
In the last few weeks, Argentina have been criticized for many reasons surrounding the World Cup. During the tournament, Portuguese players like Pepe said the competition was rigged. Furthermore, thousands of fans in the Netherlands and France believed the referees did a terrible job in favor of the South American squad.
Of course, it’s impossible to forget that penalty shoot-out in the quarterfinals where the players from the Netherlands severelycriticized Dibu Martinez’s ‘tactics’ to distract them as goalkeeper. Lautaro Martinez took notice of all that and had a strong response to them in an interview with ESPN Argentina.
“The situation with the Netherlands was mainly because of all what they said prior to the match. It was a lot of talking. After that, we only did our game. We never spoke about the Dutch players as they spoke about us. They just talked about us. Thatwas annoying too, but it happens. It wasn’t important for us on the field. In the penalty kicks, there was always someone of them bothering our players. That’s why we reacted like that. I’m sure a lot of people are really upset with Argentina being World Champion.”
