FIFA World Cup: How Saudi Arabia stopped Argentina from breaking Italy’s record
In the FIFA World Cup being played in Qatar, there was a big upset on Tuesday when Saudi Arabia defeated the two-time world champion team Argentina.
In this Group C match being played at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar, Lionel Messi gave Argentina the lead in the 10th minute.
He scored a penalty against Saudi Arabia. With this goal, Argentina’s team went ahead 1-0 in the match.
Lautaro Martinez scored the second goal for Argentina, but it was disallowed by the referee. Saudi Arabia scored the first goal of the match in the 48th minute.
The Argentine team was being counted among the favorites at the start of the tournament. She was hoisting the flag of victory continuously for the last 36 matches. It also includes the Copa America Cup of the year 2021.
Messi’s dream in danger Argentina now face Mexico on Saturday, while Saudi Arabia will take on Poland. If Messi has any chance of becoming immortal in his country by winning the World Cup like Diego Maradona, then Argentina will have to do something immediately.
Tuesday’s results have raised questions on Argentina’s defense. Before this, the record of winning 37 consecutive matches in international matches has been in the name of Italy.
With today’s match, Messi became the first Argentine player to have played 20 matches in four World Cup tournaments. But today the Saudi Arabian team spoiled Messi’s goal and the fun of his achievement. Before Messi, Maradona has played the most 21 matches in the World Cup for Argentina.
Messi’s strike partner Martinez told Reuters news agency, “It hurts a lot. We were dreaming that the World Cup would start with this victory. But it happened and we have to think about the future.”
He said, “We lost this game because of our mistakes. We made these mistakes in the second half. We need to rectify our mistakes.”
Where did the game turn… Things looked different at the beginning of the match. Messi started in stormy style. Saudi goalkeeper Al-Owais was sent off in the wrong direction in the penalty shoot-out.
But after this, the efforts of the second goal from Argentina failed.
Today’s result for Saudi Arabia has changed the history of getting out of the match at the very beginning of the tournament.
Host Russia in the year 2018 and Germany’s defeat in the year 2002 by 8-0 were one of such big upsets.
Saleh Alshehri scored for Saudi Arabia. Salem Aldsari scored the second goal for Saudi Arabia in the 53rd minute.
In World Cup history…
Who knew this was going to happen. Argentina’s team was counted among the elite teams in the teams that reached Qatar for the FIFA World Cup.
Many people believed that Argentina would go a long way in the World Cup competition. The Argentine team, adorned with star players like Messi, was considered to be a master in the matter of attack.
The Argentine team had to go through a lot of turmoil before reaching the last 16 teams in the World Cup match held in Russia in the year 2018. The manager was removed just before the event.
But after the arrival of manager and coach Lionel Scaloni, the Argentine team became serious. He did not lose in many matches but kept winning continuously.
After the defeat at the hands of Brazil in the final of the Copa America tournament in the year 2019, Argentina did not taste defeat till Tuesday’s match.
What Saudi Arabia has done… The winning streak of Argentina has now been broken. Saudi Arabia defeated him in a very shocking way. Before today’s match no one was taking him seriously in this tournament.
In this tournament with the participation of 32 countries, only Ghana’s ranking was below them. Saudi Arabia had registered three victories in its account before Argentina, but none of the victories could be called big.
But today it seemed as if luck was with Saudi Arabia. If Messi and Lautaro Martinez had kept pace with the timing of their attacks, Argentina would have scored 4-0 before the break.
But the Saudi Arabian team snatched the victory from under the nose of Argentina. With the final whistle of the match, it was clear that history had been made.
Saudi Arabia became the first team since Cameroon in 1990 to beat Argentina in a World Cup match.
The importance of this victory of Saudi Arabia can be gauged from the decision of King Salman that a public holiday has been declared in the country on Wednesday. To celebrate Saudi Arabia’s victory over Argentina, all schools, colleges and private and government offices in the country will be closed on Wednesday.
