The 2022 FIFA World Cup saw its biggest shock thus far as unfancied Saudi Arabia fought back from a goal deficit to defeat one of the tournament favourites Argentina by 2 goals to 1. After a first half largely dominated by the South Americans, the Saudis fought back right at the start of the second half scoring 2 goals in 5 minutes.
It all looked like an expected comfortable win for Argentina in the first half as their record goal scorer Lionel Messi calmly put them ahead from the penalty spot. La Albiceleste thought they have gone 2-0 ahead when Lautaro Martinez put a through ball past the Saudi goalkeeper but his effort was disallowed because Messi was offside.
Still, Argentina looked largely comfortable during the first half and the only question was the margin of victory for them. However, Saudi Arabia came back with renewed energy after half-time, and within three minutes, they were level thanks to Al Shehri’s goal. The equalizer stunned Argentina but the Saudis were not done, just 5 minutes later, Al Dawsari curled in a beautiful finish past Emiliano Martinez in the Argentinian goal handing an unlikely lead to the gulf country.
Argentina tried their best to claw their way back into the contest but an inspired Saudi defense held firm with the goalkeeper Al Owaisi coming up with several crucial saves to deny the Argentinians.
The shocking loss has put a spanner into the works for Argentina who were one of the favourites to lift the trophy before the tournament began having been on a 36 games unbeaten run. They now face an uphill task to get out of the group stage with their next two games against much tougher opponents in Mexico and Poland, who face off against each other later today.
In what is set to be their superstar Lionel Messi’s last World Cup, Argentina has got off to the worst possible start. It will be interesting to see if they can fight back from it.
