Saudi Arabia celebrates victory over Argentina in Qatar-20220

Doha, November 22 (PL) - The Saudi Arabian team today played the first surprise at the Qatar 2022 soccer World Cup, after beating Argentina two goals to one.

The Argentine striker Lionel Messi scored his seventh goal in the history of the World Cup and it seemed that everything was going smoothly, but in the second half the story changed dramatically.    

Just at the start of the second half, Saleh Al-Shehri (48) gave the Argentine fans a scare after a loss in the middle of the field, and shortly after Salem Al-Dawsari (53) turned everything upside down.

Messi had taken the penalty in the 10th minute with an unassailable shot into the right-hand corner of the goal defended by Mohammed Al Owais, who was immense throughout the match.

In this way, the Albiceleste striker moved to within one goal of the legendary Diego Armando Maradona in the list of Argentine goal scorers in World Cups, a list that is headed by Gabriel Batistuta, with 10.

In the first half, the South American team had three more goals disallowed for offside, one of them scored by Messi himself.

Argentina also lost an unbeaten 36-match unbeaten streak, and the defeat came at the worst possible time.

Now the Albiceleste is practically obliged to beat Mexico and Poland, the other members of the group, to advance to the second round.