First World Cup sensation perfect: Saudi Arabia embarrassed title favorite Argentina

First World Cup sensation perfect
Saudi Arabia embarrasses title favorite Argentina

Lionel Messi and his Argentinians dream of the title at the World Cup – but the tournament favorite is grounded in the first game. The “Albiceleste” lost 1:2 against the blatant outsider Saudi Arabia and gambled away an early lead.

Lionel Messi looked up at the sky in disbelief and almost begging, but there was no help from above either. While the Argentinian captain and his horrified teammates crept off the pitch of the seething stadium in Lusail after one of the greatest sensations in World Cup history, the “Green Falcons” from Saudi Arabia and their supporters freaked out after the 2-1 (0-1) against one of the big World Cup favorites.

“We lost, and that was mainly due to our own mistakes. Now we have to look ahead and keep playing,” said attacker Lautaro Martinez immediately after the game, but also emphasized: “It wasn’t easy today either, it was a difficult one opponents. That’s why it went so badly in the second half.” In fact, Saudi Arabia braced itself with passion, but also hardness against the sometimes unimaginative Argentinians.

Superstar Messi was cool from the point at first, but was then sensationally sidelined: with a penalty kick after video evidence, the 35-year-old initially scored the early lead. But Saleh Alsheri (48th) and Salem Aldawsari (53rd) took heart in hand, turned the game around for the growing outsider and caused Argentina’s first defeat since 1990. Small fun fact: Saudi Arabia won their second World Cup game in a row, again 2-1 (like in 2018 in the preliminary round against Egypt), again from a 0-1 deficit and again thanks to Salem Aldawsari’s winner.

Just missed Italy’s world record

With the unexpected low blow ended after 1238 days and 36 games immediately before setting the world record of Italy (37) the series of games without defeat – for Messi and the Albiceleste a shameful false start in the hunt for the third world title: Saudi Arabia is only number 51 in the world rankings. Argentina already has to worry about reaching the round of 16 in Group C. In any case, the pressure is enormous before the duels with Mexico and Poland.

Messi first turned up the heat in front of 88,012 spectators, after just 95 seconds he forced goalkeeper Mohammed Alowais to make a brilliant save with a shot from 14 meters. Then referee Slavko Vincic pointed to the point with the help of video evidence after Saud Abdulhamid had saved Leandro Paredes, Messi completed the cool run-up with a casual stopper for the 92nd international goal. His second goal (22′) and Lautaro Martinez’s (27′, 35′) didn’t count due to being offside.

Game surprisingly open

In general, however, Saudi Arabia designed the game a little more openly than expected, playing boldly at times with three points. In the last third, however, there was a complete lack of penetrating power. Instead, the Saudis gave up enormous space behind their own back four with their high attack, but the Argentines repeatedly ran into the offside trap.

And after the change, the underdog struck ice cold instead, Alsheri (48th) and Aldawsari (53rd) scored with fantastically placed shots. The Argentines reacted with furious attacks, Nicolas Tagliafico (63rd) failed from three meters at Alowais. However, Lionel Scaloni’s team often lacked ideas, the Saudis selflessly threw themselves into every ball in their own penalty area. And when there were chances, such as for Messi with a header (84th), goalkeeper Aloweis was there.

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