LUSAIL CITY, Qatar – The roars that echoed around the Lusail Stadium at the final whistle would have been matched across the border in Saudi Arabia, after the kingdom delivered one of the biggest upsets in the World Cup, stunning tournament favourites Argentina 2-1 in their opening Group C game on Tuesday.
After poor showings by two other Asian teams in earlier games – hosts Qatar lost 2-0 to Ecuador before Iran were thrashed 6-2 by England – few gave the Saudis a chance against the Copa America champions, led by the most talented player of his generation, Lionel Messi.
But two goals in five second-half minutes helped the Saudis post a historic win that will sit alongside South Korea’s 2-1 extra-time upset of Italy in 2002 as the continent’s most memorable results at the showpiece tournament.
Saudi midfielder Abdulelah Al-Malki said they were fired up like never before by their coach Herve Renard, whom he affectionately called “crazy”.
“Renard made us cry with the motivation before the match and stoked us up during half-time,” he added, referring to their 1-0 deficit at the break.
Much of the pre-game talk was not whether Argentina would win but by how many.
After all, the match pitted the world’s No. 3 team, tipped by many to lift their third World Cup come Dec 18, against the world No. 51 Saudis, the tournament’s second-lowest ranked side.
Argentina’s players ply their trade in Europe’s top clubs while the Middle Eastern side featured only those from their local league.
The match appeared to follow the script early on. The ball broke to Messi inside the box after barely two minutes, but his low shot was well-parried by Saudi goalkeeper Mohammed Al-Owais.
Messi found the back of the net eight minutes later when he coolly rolled home a penalty after the video assistant referee (VAR) spotted an infringement at a corner kick.
He marked a milestone by becoming only the fifth player to score in four different editions of the World Cup. He also became only the fourth player to feature at five World Cups.
But Qatar 2022 can arguably be considered a “home” tournament for the neighbouring Saudis, and this was evident by the number of green shirts among the 88,012 spectators in the stands.
Their supporters were defiant in the face of the odds, even jeering Messi every time his image came up on one of the stadium’s four big screens.
Their team’s performance reflected their fight. They were aggressive in their press high up the pitch, while keeping a disciplined line – they caught Argentina offside seven times in the first half, resulting in goals for Messi and Lautaro Martinez being chalked off.
But they hardly troubled Emiliano Martinez in La Albiceleste’s goal. That changed after the break, however. In the 48th minute, Saleh Al-Sehri raced past Nicolas Otamendi and fired a shot that squeezed beyond Martinez’s reach to send the Saudi supporters wild.
Five minutes later, they roared even louder when Salem Al-Dawsari arrowed a shot into the top corner to set the team on their way towards an improbable result.
The Argentinians poured forward to avoid embarrassment, but Al-Owais denied Nicolas Tagliafico with an incredible point-blank save. His defence were equally resilient in repelling attack after attack, as the Saudis clung on for a famous win.
Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni had no complaints about the three disallowed goals, but he said those razor-tight decisions were what cost his side the match.
“The reasons were millimetric. The offsides, they have a high defensive line, we knew that any goal situation would go for or against us,” he said. “In this case, the technology took a goal away from us.”
Renard, who had led Zambia and Ivory Coast to Africa Cup of Nations glory, said: “All the stars in the sky were aligned for us, but don’t forget Argentina are still a fantastic team. This is football, sometimes totally crazy things can happen.”
They will be hoping for more of the same when they meet Poland on Saturday, while Argentina will be looking to bounce back from this humilation against Mexico.
