SAUDI ARABIA LEAVES MESSI HOPES HANGING BY A THREAD
stars appeared to be aligning for Lionel Messi as he arrived at the Qatar World Cup with an Argentina squad that has been simply unbeatable since 2019.
When the mercurial 35-year-old stroked home a penalty 10 minutes into his side’s opening Group C clash against Saudi Arabia, it seemed all the talk that this was his—and Argentina’s— time was fully justified.
What happened next suggested that the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner’s fifth and final World Cup might end up in familiar crushing disappointment.
Saudi Arabia, Fifa’s (International Federation of Association Football) 51st ranked team that has suffered 5-0 and 8-0 World Cup defeats before, roared back to claim an astonishing 2-1 victory that will go down as one of the greatest shocks in any sport ever.
“We made history for football,” Saudi’s French coach Herve Renard said.
“[The result] will stay forever, this is most important,” he added. “But we also have to think about looking forward. We still have two difficult games before us.”
While their green-clad fans celebrated in delirious fashion, hundreds of Argentina’s traveling army tried to figure out what had happened.
They might point to the three disallowed goals, one for Messi and two for Lauturo Martinez, as bad luck.
Not giving up
But they will also rightly be angry at how a squad packed with household names, and was one game from equalling Italy’s 37-match unbeaten run in international football, suffered another World Cup blowout.
“It’s a very heavy blow, a defeat that hurts, but we must continue to have confidence in ourselves,” said Messi, who has never won the World Cup. “This group is not going to give up.”
Messi forced an early save and then slotted in a penalty for his 92nd international goal.
But Argentina withered in the face of a ferocious Saudi Arabian onslaught after the interval.
Having a goal disallowed for offside could be deemed unfortunate. Three smacked of carelessness by a side that 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.
When Saleh Al-Shehri equalized in the 48th minute to draw Saudi Arabia level, it should have focused Argentine minds.
Instead, they looked rattled and when the Saudis swarmed in attack again five minutes later, Salem Al-Dawsari shrugged off some flimsy challenges to leave Argentina with little wriggle room and Messi’s hopes hanging by a thread.