Saudi minnows fell Messi’s Argentina giants in stunning upset
Unheralded Saudi Arabia notched one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history on Tuesday with a 2-1 win over Lionel Messi’s Argentina thanks to a scintillating second-half comeback.
On his fifth and final quest for the only major trophy to elude him, the 35-year-old Messi scored a 10th-minute penalty in a dominant first-half display where he and Lautaro Martinez also had three goals disallowed for offside.
But Saudi Arabia, the secondlowest ranked team in the tournament after Ghana, threw caution to the wind at the start of the second half, charging at Argentina’s defence in front of a frenzied 88,012 crowd.
First, Saleh Al-shehri squeezed in a low shot in the 48th minute.
Then, to the disbelief of even the Saudi fans, Salem Aldawsari curled in a scorching strike from the edge of the penalty area in the 53rd minute to leave Argentina and Messi looking utterly shell-shocked in the Group C opener.
Despite plenty of possession after that, Argentina could not penetrate the Green Falcons, who were competing in their sixth World Cup but had never previously won an opening game. The entire game was played in an extraordinary atmosphere at the Lusail Stadium, with Argentina’s traditionally huge and raucous crowd matched by the thousands of Saudis who had come over the border to cheer on their team.
“Our team fulfils our dreams!” and “Where is Messi? We beat him!”, the green-clad Saudis chanted over and over in the Lusail Stadium, on their feet and greeting every clearance including one headed off the goal line with a deafening roar.
Both teams have Mexico and Poland to come, with Argentina needing an immediate reaction if Messi is to have a realistic chance of matching Diego Maradona’s immortality in his homeland by bringing home the World Cup.
The result revived old question marks over Argentina’s defence and broke their amazing 36-match undefeated run.
That stopped them from matching the previous international record of 37 games unbeaten held by Italy.
It also marred Messi’s achievement on Tuesday of becoming the first Argentinian to score in four World Cups on his 20th appearance in the tournament.
Only Maradona has played more games for Argentina at the World Cup, 21 in all.
“This hurts a lot. We were dreaming of starting the World Cup with a win,” Messi’s strike partner Martinez said.
“But it’s happened and now we have to train and think forward.
“We lost this game because of our own mistakes, most of all in the second half.
“There are details that make a difference and we need to correct our mistakes.”
It had all looked so different at the start when the marauding Messi nearly scored in the opening seconds, celebrated joyfully after sending Saudi goalkeeper Mohammed Alowais the wrong way with his penalty, and then had another goal disallowed.
In another early game, Denmark hit the woodwork in the second half as they were held to a 0-0 draw by Tunisia in their Group D World Cup opener that smouldered and sparked, but never quite caught fire at the Education City Stadium.
Against a backdrop of raucous noise provided by the thousands of Tunisian fans in the stands, Issam Jebali had a goal ruled out for offside in the 23rd minute but it was Denmark who provided most of the attacking football in the first half. The Danes upped the tempo in the second, with Christian Eriksen firing a rasping left-foot shot that was saved by goalkeeper Aymen Dahmen in the 69th minute, and Andreas Cornelius hit the post with a header from the resulting corner.
Tunisia defended resolutely and threatened on the counter as the Danes struggled to break them down, and in the end their fans were delighted with a point that sets them up for their next game against Australia, while Denmark face France.