Argentina 0-0 Netherlands (4-2 on penalties)
Alejandro Sabella, Argentina coach
“I’m very happy for several reasons: for the players, for the staff, the people of Argentina, my family, the Argentina FA and for all those who have brought me to this moment. We’ve made it to the Final and this is a historic moment. It was a tough and even match, probably deserving to be a draw, but I thought we had better chances over the 120 minutes. We won the penalties, if they’d won the penalties, I’d say the same”.
“I’m delighted with the professionalism of the players, they’ve given us a great platform for the Final. We never gave up on winning tonight and my players gave everything – every last drop of sweat. Although we have one day less to recover and we’ve played 30 more minutes tonight, we’ll approach the game with hard-work and humility. But we believe that we can win”.
Louis van Gaal, Netherlands coach
“It’s the most terrible scenario to lose on penalties. It’s simply a matter of luck and we did not lose today. In a tournament scenario, you need to score more than one goal than the opposition during the game – and we didn’t do that. But not only that, we didn’t create many chances in this match, far less than any other game here. However, Argentina didn’t create much either”.
“Players like Robben, Sneijder and Van Persie found opportunities difficult to come by and so did Messi, Aguero and Lavezzi, so that says something about the tactical battle we saw. We’ve played a fantastic tournament. No-one expected us to make it out of the group stage, but we won it, we defeated Mexico and Costa Rica – and at the very least we were equal to Argentina, if not better”.
Wesley Sneijder
“We deserve much better. Argentina were playing for penalties, which wasn’t the case with us. We tried to play. I missed my penalty. It’s a shame. But it’s particularly frustrating not to have capitalised on the chances we created over the 120 minutes.”
“It’s sport, and it’s tough. But I’m a man and I’m not going to whinge about it. Of course, I know that I played well, but positive feelings pass to one side now that I’ve missed my penalty. We’re going home empty-handed. It’s sad, because the only thing that counts is the title. There’s still the third-place match (against Brazil). But it’s not the same thing.”
