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Wednesday, 5 July 2006, 07:47 GMT 08:47 UK

Fifa fury at Berlin match fracas

Argentina midfielder Gabriel Heinze is separated from Germany's Bastian Schweinsteiger Furious Fifa president Sepp Blatter confirmed it will investigate the ugly scenes which marred Germany's quarter-final victory over Argentina.

Punches and kicks were thrown between both sides following Germany's penalty shoot-out success in Berlin.

Blatter told Five Live Sport: "I am furious about that and our disciplinary committee will monitor this incident.

"We will take some steps towards those who are identified as being the 'provocateurs' of this incident."

Blatter added: "There was really no need. After 120 minutes football is a drama, and then you have to go to penalty kicks and then football becomes a tragedy, but one is the winner and one is the loser.

"What I always say is in football you learn to win, but you also have to learn to lose."

Germany's Torsten Frings said of the incident: "They (Argentina) are bad losers. They lost their minds."

"It just shows they are bad sports and are badly behaved"
Germany's Torsten Frings

Argentina's unused substitute Leandro Cufre was shown a red card for kicking Germany's Per Mertesacker in the melee. The German defender said: "They are no choirboys.

"One of their players attacked me even though I did not do anything. I have three or four red marks on my thigh and then he kicked me again in the groin."

Germany's Frings said they tried to calm the Argentina players down, but added: "It just shows they are bad sports and are badly behaved. I hope their players get suspended."

Argentina coach Jose Pekerman, who was criticised for taking off playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme when they were 1-0 up with 18 minutes to go, resigned after the quarter-final defeat.

Germany will now face Italy in the semi-finals after the Azzurri saw off Ukraine 3-0 on Friday.



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Related to this story:

Berlin stadium announcer sacked (01 Jul 06 |  Germany )
Ugly scenes mar Germany triumph (30 Jun 06 |  Germany )
Pekerman quits as Argentina coach (30 Jun 06 |  Argentina )
Klinsmann hails 'fantastic' fans (30 Jun 06 |  Germany )
Clinical Germany win on penalties (30 Jun 06 |  World Cup 2006 )
Argentina team guide (22 May 06 |  Argentina )
Pick your Argentina XI (31 May 06 |  Squad selectors )
World Cup schedule (25 May 06 |  Schedule )
Have your say on the World Cup (28 Apr 06 |  )
BBC World Cup coverage (27 Apr 06 |  BBC coverage )

RELATED INTERNET LINKS:
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Official Argentina website
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