Upsets are part of sports, but historical setups are rarely the case. They go down history and are etched in the memory forever. We have seen upsets Men’s T20 World Cup 2022, the most unexpected ones though. Yet, we have just witnessed two historical FIFA World Cup 2022 upsets in the beginning. Saudi Arabia beats the former world champions Argentina by 2-1. To celebrate the victory, a public holiday was given the next day
There have been quite a few historical upsets, which include:
- 2002 World Cup – Senegal 1-0 France
- 2014 World Cup – Costa Rica 1 – 0 Italy
- 2018 World Cup – South Korea 2-0 Germany
Saudi Arabia vs Argentina
This is the last world cup for Lionel Messi. He had never anticipated having such a shock in the very first game of the FIFA World Cup 2022. Being the favorites for FIFA World Cup 2022, they had to face defeat by Saudi Arabia by 1-2. They have had an unbeaten winning streak of 36 games which was broken by Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Goalkeeper Mohammed Al-Owais was the star performer as he saved five potential goals. Argentinians missed a lot of chances, which haunted them later on. Messi scored the only goal for Argentina in the first half, which was leveled by Saleh Al-Shehri in the third minute of the second half. The second victorious goal was scored by Saleem Al-Daswari.
Under the Team Manager, Herve Renard, Saudi Arabia is the first non-European team to win since Cameroon in 1999.
Saudi Coach Frenchman Renard was short of words praising Saudi’s victory, “Congratulations to these fantastic players. The stars aligned for us. They came here without losing 36 games, they’re South American champions. They have an amazing player in Messi. But this is football, and unexpected things can happen. We made history for Saudi Arabia but we have important games [in Group ‘C’ against Mexico and Poland] to come. You can win the first game and not qualify from the group. You can lose the first game and still become champions.”
Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said, “We have to keep our heads up and bounce back quickly. We owned the first half and we had goals ruled out for off-side. If we had those goals, and a bigger lead, things would’ve probably ended differently. The players are in pain and they are thinking about how we can turn this around.”