(Argentina-Saudi Arabia 1-2) Lionel Messi (35) and Argentina came to the World Cup in Qatar with 36 games in a row without defeat. Then they met Saudi Arabia – and went straight to the nose.

– Argentina were terrible in the second half but all credit goes to Saudi Arabia, Sky Sports pundit and former Manchester United player Roy Keane told ITV.

– A nice reminder that you can’t just show up and rely on your qualities, he sums up.

According to analysis firm Gracenote, Saudi Arabia’s victory is the biggest shock in World Cup history, writes the BBC.

– It hurts a lot. We had high hopes of starting with a victory at the World Cup. But it’s over and now we have to train and focus on what lies ahead, says Argentina striker Lautaro Martínez mark.

After a half with Messi scoring and three goals canceled out by Argentina, the World Cup drama escalated sharply at the Lusail Stadium, the biggest World Cup venue in Qatar – and the stage for the final. of the controversial pre-Christmas championship.

Saleh Al-Shehri and Salem Al-Dawsari were downright shocked Lionel MessiArgentina – and almost everyone in football – when they turned things around in the space of five minutes.

That’s how VG’s sports studio reacted to the shock loss.

Argentina is the defending champion of the Copa América (2021) and continued its 37th game in a row without defeat. With a draw against Saudi Arabia, ranked 53rd in the world, they would touch Italy, which stopped at just 37 games without defeat last year.

– One of the biggest shocks in World Cup history, said TV 2 commentator Øyvind Alsaker as the Saudi players cheered wildly on the grass in Qatar.

The victory of North Korea over Italy in 1966 and that of the United States over England in 1950 are historical shocks that are put forward to put the exploit into perspective.

Messi and his teammates were never able to recover properly from the clash, and a solid push in the final minutes didn’t yield results. More than 13 minutes have been added.

Also four years ago, during the World Cup in Russia in 2018, the World Cup started with a shock for Argentina. So it was Iceland, responsible for the exploit, in the country’s first-ever World Cup game. Hannes Halldórsson, the man with a past in Norwegian football, saved Messi’s penalty – and thus saved 1-1 for Iceland.

In Qatar, Lionel Messi looked, at least for a while, fresh as he began his final World Cup assignment as a player.

It looked simple enough as the 35-year-old curled the penalty into the empty corner, sending Argentina ahead before ten minutes were played.

With this, the ball magician has placed himself on an exclusive list of players who have scored in four World Cup finals.

Only Pelé (Brazil, 1958-1970), Uwe Seeler (West Germany 1958-1970), Miroslav Klose (Germany 2002-2014) and Cristiano Ronaldo (2006-2018) have already done so. Lionel Messi.

Eventually, he became a pale version of Messi at the Lusail stadium.

16 years after his first goal in the World Cup, against Serbia in June 2006, the Argentinian is still going strong.

Now he is naturally aiming for his first World Cup gold medal, against an experienced Argentina, with four players aged 34 or over in Tuesday’s starting XI. The question is how good this Argentinian edition really is. Expectations were high before this championship.

Messi, 35, said it would be his last FIFA World Cup.

At the top, Inter striker Lautaro Martínez and Lionel Messi seemed to be talking almost Same language.

If they understand the offside rules, it could be fun to be Argentinian. In the first half, the duo were exposed by FIFA’s offside technology and disqualified for three goals as a result.