November 22, 2022 Saudi Arabia's Saleh Al-Shehri, Nawaf Al Abid and teammates celebrate after the match REUTERS/Peter Cziborra
Brilliant goals from Saleh Al Shehri and Salem Al Dawsari sealed the greatest win in the history of Saudi Arabia football as the Green Falcons left Lionel Messi-led Argentina shell-shocked in their World Cup opener at the Lusail Stadium yesterday.
The Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was also among the 88,012-strong spectators – the biggest number of fans seen at a football venue in Qatar as the Herve Renard-coached side became the first Asian team to beat two-time winners Argentina at the World Cup.
Both the Saudi Arabia goals came within five minutes in the second half after Messi put the pre-tournament favourites ahead in the 10th minute before VAR had three of their goals disallowed.
Al Shehri squeezed in a low shot in the 48th minute before Al Dawsari struck from the edge of the penalty area in the 53rd minute to stun the Lionel Scaloni’s side.
Messi’s goal made him only the fifth player ever to score in four different editions of FIFA World Cup, but the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner couldn’t save Argentina from snapping their 36-match unbeaten run as Saudi Arabia, ranked 51st in FIFA rankings, clinched their fourth and most memorable World Cup win.
“We made history for Saudi football, it will stay forever,” Renard, who joined the Saudi Arabia ranks in 2019, said.
“All the stars in the sky were aligned for us, but don’t forget Argentina are still a fantastic team,” a jubilant and proud Renard said after the country’s fourth win at FIFA World Cup tournaments.
“This is football, sometimes totally crazy things can happen,” the French coach added.
Popular sport and entertainment data analysts Nielsen Gracenote rated the victory of The Falcons as the biggest shock in the history of FIFA World Cup.
The Nielsen Gracenote analysis showed Saudi Arabia’s magnificent fightback came after an initial win probability of 8.7%. That puts USA’s 1950 win over England (9.5%) to second place.
Scaloni praised Saudi Arabia’s defence, admitting that the Renard-coached men did better in the latter part of the game.
“I think the first half was all ours, but one goal can change everything,” Scaloni said.
“We fully respect Saudi Arabia as we do with other teams, that’s not the reason for our defeat,” Scaloni added after his team’s first loss since July 2019.
“They are a good team with technical players, they are very well prepared physically.”
Messi, meanwhile, was left dejected after his first loss in 40 long months.
“We didn’t expect to start like this,” Messi told Argentinian media after the game.
“It’s a situation that this group of players has never been through, it’s been a while since we suffered such a tough blow.
“In five minutes of mistakes that we made, we went 2-1 down and then it was really tough and we lost organisation and started punting the ball,” the 35-year-old who is playing in his final World Cup, said.
However, the Paris Saint-Germain star said it is time for his players to stick together and try their best to win the rest of the matches.
“There are no excuses, we’re going to be more united than ever before,” he said.
Argentina’s next two Group C games are against Mexico on Saturday and then Poland next Wednesday as Messi gives his last shot at claiming a world title, the third for Argentina to match the status of great countryman Diego Maradona.
“This is the time to stick together, to turn the page and not think about what happened,” said Messi.
“We always said we were going to (try to) win every game and now more than ever.”
While Messi & Co were planning to go back to basics, Renard is also plotting his team’s path in search of a place in the last 16.
“(We can) just have a good celebration during 20 minutes and that’s all, there are still two more games. When you come to the World Cup, you need to believe in yourself, anything can happen in football,” the 54-year-old Frenchman said.
Out of five previous World Cup appearances, Saudi Arabia have reached the Round of 16 once, in 1994, and they are one step closer to the target this time.
Incidentally, teams defeating Argentina since 2014 have gone far in the global tournament with Germany (2014) and France (2018) winning the titles.
Croatia, who defeated Argentina in the group stage in Russia, reached the final where they lost to France fours years ago.
