Messi Who? Plucky Saudi Arabia stun ‘ favourites,’ Argentina
• Tunisia raises Africa’s hope
‘ DON’T cry for me Argentina,’ goes Eva Peron’s ( also known as Evita) famous words, which was sung by Madonna. But yesterday at the Lusail Stadium, Qatar, Lionel Messi and his troop were left to rue missed first half chances and their strikers ill- timing that cost them three goals, as plucky Saudi Arabia recorded the first big upset of the ongoing 2022 World Cup.
It was totally a victory that came out of the blues, but followers of Saudi coach, Herve Renard, predicted that the Frenchman, who took Morocco to a mazy run at the World Cup in Russia four years ago, could ruffle some shoulders here in Qatar. And that his boys did by inflicting on one of the favourites an unexpected defeat.
Really, the stars appeared to be aligning for Messi as he arrived at the Qatar World Cup being the talisman for an Argentina squad that has been simply unbeatable since 2019.
And when the 35- year- old scored a penalty 10 minutes into the opening Group C clash, it seemed that the seven- time Ballon d’or winner was on his way to leading his country to glory.
And then signs that Messi’s fifth and final World Cup might end up in familiar crushing disappointment showed early in the second half when Saleh Al- Shehri got away from Cristian Romero all too easily to draw Saudi Arabia level. Rather than defend to keep the game safe at 1- 1, Saudi Arabia roared forward five minutes later with Al- Dawsari shrugging off some flimsy challenges to curl a winner that
Messi himself would have been proud to have in his glittering collection.
Saudi Arabia, ranked 51st by FIFA, looked more like the better rated team than an Argentina rated as the world’s third best team.
While green- clad fans celebrated in delirious fashion, hundreds of Argentina’s travelling army sat staring into space, trying to figure out what had happened.
They might point to the three disallowed goals, one for Messi and two for Lautaro Martinez, as bad luck. But when the shock subsides, they will rightly be angry at how a squad packed with household names and who were one game away from equalling Italy’s 37match unbeaten run in international football, suffered another World Cup blowout.
Having one goal disallowed for offside could be considered unfortunate. Three smacked of carelessness by Lionel Scaloni’s side, who should have been home and dry by halftime.
Saudi Arabia’s offside trap was canny, but forwards of the quality of Messi, Martinez and Angel Di Maria ran into it seven times in the first half — one more than they did in the whole of the 2018 tournament in Russia.
No- one thought that it would matter much and that Argentina would change gear after the break. But from the moment the second half kicked off, they looked ragged, cumbersome and ponderous — certainly not like a team widely tipped to deliver a third World Cup, and first since Diego Maradona’s 1986 glory.