A disappointed Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder hit out at Argentina after their semi-final clash – saying the South Americans played for penalties throughout.
In one of the poorest games of the tournament, there was little to separate the sides until the Argentines came good on penalties to win 4-2 and set up a World Cup final with Germany.
He told NOS: “This is a very hard result to take because I really believe that we deserved something more from this but then, maybe we should have decided the game sooner.
“I think that there was only one team that wanted a penalty shootout and that was Argentina.
“It hurts so much but you have to take it because that is football.”
Sneijder was one of the unfortunate two Dutchmen, along with Ron Vlaar, who saw their penalties saved by Sergio Romero.
“I hate penalty shoot-outs!” he spat. “But I had to take some of the responsibility and sometimes it can go wrong. Unfortunately it did.”
