Lionel Messi appeared to call Louis van Gaal ‘stupid’ in the tunnel (Image: TyCSports)

Lionel Messi appeared to have several heated clashes with Louis van Gaal after Argentina defeated the Netherlands in an extremely ill-tempered World Cup quarter-final.

The Netherlands fought back with the final kick of regulation from 2-0 to Friday’s draw, but eventually lost on penalties.

Both sides clashed several times with referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz showing players and staff a record seventeen yellow cards.

Emotions continued to boil after the final whistle, with Dutch defender Denzel Dumfries even getting a second yellow and red for his antics.

But Argentina’s captain Messi was also heavily involved in the scuffle and clashed on the touchline with none other than Dutch coach Van Gaal, forcing coaching staff including Edgar Davids to separate the two.

It is not known exactly what was said, although some have theorized that Messi attacked Van Gaal due to the manager’s pre-match comments.

“It’s not that hard to come up with an answer how to stop him,” said 71-year-old Messi.

“You may want to block and close the passing lines. I can’t imagine this causing too much excitement.

That wasn’t the end of the matter though, as Messi was later being interviewed in the tunnel on live TV when he appeared to stare into the eyes of an unseen person, allegedly Van Gaal again.

The 35-year-old angrily asked, “What are you looking at? Come on, you idiot.”

During the interview, he added: “Van Gaal says yes [Holland] Good football, but he knocked down big people and hit long balls.

Perhaps ironically, it was this tactic that got the Dutch back on the field in the first place.

Argentina will meet Croatia in the semifinals on Tuesday.