Football's ruling body FIFA on Saturday launched a disciplinary investigation against Argentina and the Netherlands after tumultuous scenes and a World Cup record 18 yellow cards in their hot-tempered quarter-final the previous day.
FIFA said its "disciplinary committee has opened proceedings against the Argentinian Football Association due to potential breaches of articles 12 (Misconduct of players and officials) and 16 (Order and security at matches)" and against the Dutch body due to potential breaches of article 12 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code."
Tempers flared on several occasions during the game in which the Dutch rallied from 2-0 down to 2-2 deep into stoppage time before losing 4-3 on penalties.
The official FIFA match report said that Spanish referee Antonio Mateu booked eight Dutch players, including Denzel Dumfries for a second time after the Dutch had lost the shoot-out, and two-time scorer Wout Weghorst on the subs' bench long before coming on.
Eight Argentina players also saw yellow, and so did their coach Lionel Scaloni and his staff member Walter Samuel.
Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez harshly dismissed Mateu as "useless" after saving two of the Dutch spot kicks in the shoot-out.
Argentina captain Lionel Messi, who was also booked, said: "I don't want to speak about referees because after they will sanction you. But people saw what happened."
The previous record had been 16 yellow cards - including four sending offs for second bookable offences - in the last 16 match between the Dutch and Portugal at the 2006 tournament in Germany, also known as The Battle of Nuremberg.
