Footage shows how four Holland stars tried to intimidate Argentina striker Lautaro Martinez

Nicolás Otamendi claimed that Argentina’s exaggerated celebrations in the Dutch’s faces were in response to the Dutch team’s intimidation tactics, and new footage backed up the defender’s statement.

Images of the South American champions celebrating wildly in front of their quarterfinal rivals emerged after their dramatic penalty shootout victory on Friday night, with several stars more focused on their opponents than their progress to the semifinals.

The Argentines were immediately hit with accusations of unsportsmanlike behaviour, but after the game former Manchester City star Otamendi said the reaction was in response to the Netherlands’ antics during the penalty shootout.

The images have shown how the Dutch players tried to intimidate Lautaro Martínez in the shootout.

Argentina received criticism for their wild celebrations against the Dutch national team on Friday

“I celebrated it to the face because there was a player from the Netherlands, who in every penalty kick we had, would come and say things to one of our players,” he said.

“The photo was taken out of context and we celebrated in response to it.”

And now the footage has backed up Otamendi’s case, with no less than four Dutch players trying to unsettle Lautaro Martínez ahead of his decisive penalty at Lusail Stadium.

After Luuk de Jong scored his penalty to keep the Netherlands alive, Denzel Dumfries, Wout Weghorst, Noa Lang and Frenkie De Jong broke away from the group at the halfway line to celebrate the goal.

But Nicolás Otamendi claimed that it was in response to the intimidation tactics of the Netherlands.

Now, the images have shown how four players tried to disturb Martínez before his penalty.

When they returned to their teammates, the quartet moved on to Martinez and had a few words in his direction to intensify the mind games as the Netherlands’ World Cup fate rested in the hands of the Inter Milan striker.

But Martinez wasn’t nervous about what his rivals had to say, coolly beating Andries Noppert to book a semi-final date with Croatia.

Friday night’s game was a tense affair where tensions reached boiling point on several occasions, notably when Leandro Paredes started a fight after hitting the ball off the Dutch bench.

The two sets of players also clashed after the final whistle, with goalkeeper Emi Martinez at the center of the fight as she hurled abuse towards the opponents’ bench. ‘Keep your mouth shut you fucking idiot! I fucked you twice! he said.

He wasn’t the only Argentinian player to struggle to control his temper, as Lionel Messi was also furious, breaking away from a TV interview to yell at one of the Netherlands staff: ‘What are you looking at? Scam!’

Messi then clashed with Dutch coach van Gaal, with assistant coach Edgar Davids having to play peacemaker after an emotional match.

Messi’s fury came minutes after the Argentinian player added salt to his Dutch counterparts’ wounds by running directly in front of them after their penalty shootout victory.

It was a tense matter on Friday and Emi Martínez was seen pointing an insult at the Dutch bank

Lionel Messi also had a war of words with Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal after the match.

Several players gestured towards the Dutch team who looked devastated after their heartbreaking defeat.

While the match did contain four goals, it was far from attacking style and threatened to spin out of control at times with both sets of players colliding on multiple occasions.

The Spanish referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz approached both benches to try to calm things down on numerous occasions, without success, and was happy showing cards with great regularity.

In fact, it was almost a miracle that no one was sent off until after the match ended, when Dumfries was shown two yellow cards in a matter of seconds when he collided with Argentine players.