Unheralded Saudi Arabia indented one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history on Tuesday with a 2-1 palm over Lionel Messi’s Argentina thanks to a scintillating alternate-half comeback.
On his fifth and final hunt for the only major jewel to escape him, the 35-time-old Messi scored a 10th-nanosecond penalty in a dominant first-half display where he and Lautaro Martinez also had three pretensions disallowed for offside.
But Saudi Arabia, the alternate-smallest ranked platoon in the event after Ghana, threw caution to the wind at the launch of the alternate half, charging at Argentina’s defence in front of a frenzied,012 crowd.
Saleh Al-Shehri squeezed in a low shot in the 48th nanosecond while Salem Al-Dawsari coiled in a scorching strike from the edge of the penalty area in the 53rd nanosecond to leave Argentina and Messi looking hugely shell-shocked in the Group C nature.
Despite plenitude of possession after that, Argentina was unfit to access Saudi Arabia, who were contending in their sixth World Cup but had noway preliminarily won an opening game.
‘Fulfil our dreams’
The entire game was played in an extraordinary atmosphere at the Lusail Stadium, with Argentina’s traditionally massive and rumbustious following matched by the thousands of Saudis who had come over the border to cheer on their platoon.
“Our platoon fulfils our dreams!” and “Where is Messi? We beat him!”, the green-clad Saudis chanted over and over in the Lusail Stadium, on their bases and chatting every concurrence from their defence with a blaring roar.
Both brigades have Mexico and Poland to come, with Argentina demanding an immediate response if Messi is to have a realistic chance of matching Diego Maradona’s eternity in his motherland by bringing home the World Cup.
The result broke Argentina’s amazing 36-match undefeated run and stopped them from matching the former transnational record of 37 games unbeaten held by Italy.
