DAWSARI STUNNER SEES SAUDI SOAR HIGH
Doha: Saudi Arabia stunned Lionel Messi’s Argentina on Tuesday, beating the two-time winners 2-1 in one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history.
Salem Al Dawsari hit a stunning winner to sink the red-hot favourites, bringing the South American side’s 36-match unbeaten run to a shuddering halt.
The win was fully deserved ater Saudi Arabia came from behind ater Saleh Al Shehri cancelled out an early Lionel Messi penalty,
Playing a risky high defensive line, the athletic Saudis rode their luck in the first half when thrice Argentina had the ball in the net only to be denied by an offside call.
But in a chaotic start to the second half, the Saudis swarmed all over Lionel Scaloni’s team and scored twice as the Arab nation beat the South Americans for the first time in five atempts.
In a first half dominated by Argentina, it seemed only a mater of time before Saudi Arabia’s risky defensive tactics would cost them.
That condensed the game into a sliver of green turf around the halfway line as the Asian side happily allowed Argentina’s back four to pass the ball among themselves.
It seemed Saudi Arabia were facing a long aternoon ater VAR intervened to award a penalty when Saud Abdulhamid wrestled Leandro Paredes to the ground in the box at a corner.
Messi waited for goalkeeper Mohammed Al-owais to dive to his let before cooly rolling the ball into the opposite corner.
But if the Saudis felt aggrieved at the technology, it would later help keep them in the game.
Three times Argentina had the ball in the net only to be denied by razor-tight offside calls, the first given by VAR.
There was no controversy about the equaliser three minutes into the second half, though, as Al Shehri ran onto a touch from Feras Al Brikan, beat Cristian Romero on the outside and slotted the ball back across goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez and into the far corner.
The sizeable Saudi contingent in the Lusail Suddenly the Argentines were rattled and five minutes later the turnaround was complete.
Dawsari’s clever turn in the box beat two defenders before he shited the ball past a third and rifled an unstoppable shot into the top far corner.
The crowd was going wild and Hassan Altambakti punched the air in delight ater his desperate sliding tackle denied Messi a clear shot at the goal.
Every Owais save, including a point-blank block from Nicolas Tagliafico’s close-range prod, was greeted with rapturous cheers.
There was late drama ater Saudi Arabia’s Al-owais collided with Yasser Al-shahrani and seemed to knock him out as his knee struck the defender’s head.
Saudi Arabia’s French coach Herve Renard warned his players not to celebrate for too long after their “totally crazy” win against Argentina.
“All the stars in the sky were aligned for us, but don’t forget Argentina are still a fantastic team,” said Renard.
“This is football, sometimes totally crazy things can happen,” added the French coach, who previously led Zambia and the Ivory Coast to Africa Cup of Nations glory.
Messi laments ‘five Minutes of Mistakes’ against saudis: Messi lamented Argentina’s shock second half capitulation against Saudi Arabia on Tuesday but said he was not surprised by the threat from opponents 48 places lower in the world rankings.
“It’s a situation that this group of players has never been through, it’s been a while since we suffered such a tough blow, we didn’t expect to start like this,” Messi told Argentinian media ater the 2-1 defeat in Group C.
shahrani suffers broken jaw after horrific collision with goalkeeper: Saudi Arabian footballer Yasser Al Shahrani’s condition was critical ater a nasty injury he sustained due to a collision with the goalkeeper Owais during his country’s match with Argentina.
Shahrani let the field on a stretcher ater the collision, which took place during stoppage time in Qatar.
The Saudi national team’s fans across the Arab world held their breath ater the serious injury that Yasser sustained in stoppage time, which ended with a historic victory for Saudi.
Yasser fell to the ground for several minutes, during which the Saudi goalkeeper was terrified, fearing for his teammate Al Shahrani, due to the force of the collision ater Owais’ knee hit Yasser in the face.
Ater conducting x-rays, it was found that Shahrani had fractured the jaw. and that he needed rapid surgical intervention due to internal bleeding.
Mohammed Bin Salman, Crown Prince of the Saudi Arabia instructed that Yasser be transferred by a private jet to Germany for treatment, ater his injury during the national team’s match versus Argentina.