July 9 – As Brazil and the rest of the world comes to terms with the exit of the hosts, the Dutch and the Argentines face off to see who will meet Germany in the Maracana on Sunday. This match will be close but it might not be pretty. Will Messi’s genius overcome Van Gaal’s preparation.
Match stats
In their previous World Cup matches, the Netherlands won twice, Argentina once, with one draw.
This is Argentina’s first World Cup semi-final since 1990, when they lost in the final to West Germany.
Argentina have never lost a World Cup semi-final.
Argentina’s victory over the Netherlands in the 1978 final, is their only win against the Netherlands in eight meetings (W1 D3 L4).
Each of Argentina’s five wins at this tournament have been by a single goal margin.
This is the first World Cup in which both Argentina and Brazil have progressed to the semi-finals.
Wesley Sneijder has now played a Dutch record of 16 World Cup games.
Head to Head games
26/05/74 Netherlands v Argentina 4-1 (International)
26/06/74 Argentina v Netherlands 0-4 (World Cup)
25/06/78 Argentina v Netherlands 3-1 (World Cup)
22/05/79 Argentina v Netherlands 0-0 (8-7) (WC Anniversary)
04/07/98 Argentina v Netherlands 1-2 (World Cup)
31/03/99 Netherlands v Argentina 1-1 (International)
12/02/03 Netherlands v Argentina 1-0 (International)
21/06/06 Netherlands v Argentina 0-0 (World Cup)
FIFA Ranking (June 5th 2014)
Netherlands: Rank: 15 Points: 981
Argentina: Rank: 5 Points: 1175
World Cup 2014
Netherland
First in Group B with 9 points (P3 W3 GF10 GA3)
Round of 16: Netherlands 2 – 1 Mexico
Quarter-final: Netherlands 0 – 0 (4 – 3 pens) Costa Rica
Argentina
First in Group F with 9 points (P3 W3 GF6 GA3)
Round of 16: Argentina 0 – 0 (1 – 0 ET) Switzerland
Quarter-final: Argentina 1 – 0 Belgium
Last 10 Matches
Netherlands: DLDWWWWWWW
19/11/13 Netherlands 0 – 0 Colombia (International)
05/03/14 France 2 – 0 Netherlands (International)
17/05/14 Netherlands 1 – 1 Ecuador (International)
31/05/14 Netherlands 1 – 0 Ghana (International)
04/06/14 Netherlands 2 – 0 Wales (International)
13/06/14 Spain 1 – 5 Netherlands (World Cup)
18/06/14 Australia 2 – 3 Netherlands (World Cup)
23/06/14 Netherlands 2 – 0 Chile (World Cup)
29/06/14 Netherlands 2 – 1 Mexico (World Cup)
05/07/14 Netherlands 0 – 0 (4 – 3 pens) Costa Rica (World Cup)
Goals for: 16 Goals against: 7
Argentina: DWDWWWWWWW
16/11/13 Ecuador 0 – 0 Argentina (International)
19/11/13 Argentina 2 – 0 Bosnia and Herzegovina (International)
05/03/14 Romania 0 – 0 Argentina (International)
04/06/14 Argentina 3 – 0 Trinidad and Tobago (International)
07/06/14 Argentina 2 – 0 Slovenia (International)
15/06/14 Argentina 2 – 1 Bosnia and Herzegovina (World Cup)
21/06/14 Argentina 1 – 0 Iran (World Cup)
25/06/14 Nigeria 2 – 3 Argentina (World Cup)
01/07/14 Argentina 0 – 0 (1 – 0) Switzerland (World Cup)
05/07/14 Argentina 1 – 0 Belgium (World Cup)
Goals for: 15 Goals against: 3