Unheralded Saudi Arabia notched one of many largest shocks in World Cup historical past on Tuesday with a 2-1 win over Lionel Messi’s Argentina due to a scintillating second-half come again.
On his fifth and ultimate quest for the one main trophy to elude him, the 35-year-old Messi scored a 10th-minute penalty in a dominant first-half show the place he and Lautaro Martinez additionally had three targets disallowed for offside.
However Saudi Arabia, the second-lowest ranked workforce within the match after Ghana, threw warning to the wind at the beginning of the second half, charging at Argentina’s defence in entrance of a frenzied 88,012 crowd.
Saleh Al-Shehri squeezed in a low shot within the 48th minute whereas Salem Al-Dawsari curled in a scorching strike from the sting of the penalty space within the 53rd minute to go away Argentina and Messi trying totally shell-shocked within the Group C opener.
Regardless of loads of possession after that, Argentina had been unable to penetrate Saudi Arabia, who had been competing of their sixth World Cup however had by no means beforehand received a gap recreation.
Your entire recreation was performed in a rare ambiance on the Lusail Stadium, with Argentina’s historically large and raucous following matched by the hundreds of Saudis who had come over the border to cheer on their workforce.
“Our team fulfils our dreams!” and “Where is Messi? We beat him!”, the green-clad Saudis chanted again and again within the Lusail Stadium, on their toes and greeting each clearance from their defence with a deafening roar.
Each groups have Mexico and Poland to come back, with Argentina needing an instantaneous response if Messi is to have a sensible probability of matching Diego Maradona’s immortality in his homeland by bringing residence the World Cup.
The outcome broke Argentina’s wonderful 36-match undefeated run and stopped them from matching the earlier worldwide file of 37 video games unbeaten held by Italy.
