Chinanews.com, Beijing, November 22. Ranked 51st in the world and at the end of the six participating teams in Asia, the low-profile Saudi Arabia team faced the Argentina team led by Messi, but played a bloody reversal. The biggest upset since the World Cup in Qatar broke out.
On November 22, local time, in the first match of the first round of Group C of the World Cup in Qatar, Argentina played against Saudi Arabia. After falling behind by 1 goal in the first half, Saudi Arabia scored 2 goals in the opening 8 minutes of the second half and temporarily overtook the score.
The picture shows the Saudi players celebrating the equalizer.
As the first show of the Argentine team in this competition, the attention of this game has reached its peak before it even started.
Two months ago, Messi admitted in an interview that the World Cup in Qatar would be his last World Cup trip.
The opening of Argentina's "Last Dance" is against Saudi Arabia.
For the Argentina team and Messi, facing Saudi Arabia in the first game is undoubtedly the most suitable start for the World Cup journey.
The opponent has participated in the World Cup five times in history and failed to advance to the knockout round four times.
Even the Saudi coach Renard remains pessimistic about the team's prospects, "I don't think we can advance to the next round, but we are here to fight against difficulties."
Even among professional football experts, it was difficult to imagine the way Saudi Arabia would win in the pre-match predictions.
The optimism of the Argentine team continued until the end of the first half.
Especially in stoppage time, Saudi captain Salman Faraj was replaced due to injury, which made the Saudi team even worse, which had not formed a shot.
However, the Argentine team played a good half-time goal, and it was the Saudi Arabian team that finally took the victory.
Messi's penalty kick failed to lead the team to pursue the victory. After wasting many opportunities to expand the score, the Saudi Arabian team blew the horn of counterattack after the intermission.
On November 22, local time, in the first match of the first round of Group C of the World Cup in Qatar, Argentina played against Saudi Arabia. After falling behind by 1 goal in the first half, Saudi Arabia scored 2 goals in the opening 8 minutes of the second half and temporarily overtook the score.
The picture shows the Saudi players celebrating the equalizer.
In the 48th minute of the game, Argentina conceded a goal and the Saudi team Shehri scored to rewrite the score to 1:1.
Only 5 minutes later, the Saudi team's No. 10 Salem Dawasari scored a world wave, and the Saudi team reversed the score and led 2:1.
The Argentine team waited for many times to organize offenses and tried to rewrite the score, and they did not score any more goals after consecutive substitutions.
In the end, the Saudi team kept the score to the end and became the first Asian team to win this World Cup.
In the previous two match days, the defeats of Qatar and Iran put Asian football on the cusp.
Today's performance of Saudi Arabia can also be called "the light of Asia".
Veteran Mohammad Owais was credited with Saudi Arabia's victory.
In this game, he blocked the goal that the Argentine striker led by Messi was bound to get.
In the end, his statistics in this game were fixed at 5 successful saves, 2 clearances, and 19 long passes with 7 successes.
On November 22, local time, in the first match of the first round of Group C of the World Cup in Qatar, Argentina played against Saudi Arabia. After falling behind by 1 goal in the first half, Saudi Arabia scored 2 goals in the opening 8 minutes of the second half to temporarily overtake the score.
The picture shows the Saudi players celebrating the overtake score.
But what is surprising is that Oweis, who is in such an online state, was not valued by the head coach before the game.
He has now played for the Saudi national team for 7 years, but because he lost his main position at the Riyadh Crescent Club this season and did not play enough times, the head coach of the Saudi national team, Renard, had to consider more goalkeeper candidates.
In the end, Oweis also repaid the coach's trust with practical actions.
It is worth mentioning that Renard, the head coach of Saudi Arabia, also had a relationship with China.
In 1999, Renard started his coaching career.
From 2002 to 2003, he served as an assistant coach in the A-A team Shanghai COSCO, assisting the French coach Leroy.
In July 2019, Renard took up the post of head coach of the Saudi national team and successfully entered the World Cup in Qatar.
Before the start of the game, he led the Saudi team to 18 victories.
I believe that the World Cup opener against Argentina will forever be recorded in the annals of his coaching career.
On November 22, local time, in the first round of the first round of Group C of the World Cup in Qatar, Argentina's match against Saudi Arabia officially started. This is also Messi's fifth World Cup debut.
The picture shows Messi breaking through with the ball.
After winning the game, Saudi Arabia also created a new team history. They had never won the first game of the World Cup before.
It even left a gloomy 0:8 loss to the German team in the Korea-Japan World Cup.
In 2018, the Saudi team returned to the World Cup stage after 8 years, but lost to Russia 0:5 and Uruguay 0:1 in the second match.
In the last battle of honor, Saudi Arabia defeated the Egyptian team led by Salah 2:1, and won the World Cup again after 24 years.
Facing the Argentina team led by Messi, Saudi Arabia withstood the pressure to reverse and win. Such a victory in the hearts of Saudi fans can even match the team's feat of breaking into the World Cup knockout round in 1994.
At this very moment, the wonderful trip to Qatar belonging to Saudi Arabia has just begun.
With a 2:1 reversal and defeat of the favorite Argentina team, the Saudi Arabian team made a "good start" in this cup. It not only ended the 36-game unbeaten game of the Argentine team, but also became the first Asian team to defeat the Argentine team in the World Cup.
After the game, a reporter asked the head coach of the Saudi team, Renard, what he thought of this "historical" game. Renard said that this was a very exciting game, and the Saudi players showed amazing abilities.
"We are very relaxed coming to the World Cup and we are well prepared for this game."
Renard said that football is like this, it will make people crazy, and it is not surprising that there are any results on the field, just like this time the Saudi team defeated the mighty Argentina team.
"But now is not the time to celebrate, we still have games to play and will continue to prepare." (End)