The result was historic as it was Argentina's first defeat to an Asian nation in the history of the FIFA World Cup.
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It has been barely three days since the start of the 2022 FIFA World Cup and fans have already seen perhaps the biggest upset of the competition. The Asian team defeated the mighty La Albiceleste 2-1 thanks to two quickfire second-half goals by Saleh Alshehri and Salem Aldawsari. The men in blue and white went ahead in the first half thanks to a composed penalty by Lionel Messi on the 10-minute mark. At that point, many believed the South Americans to go all out and get a huge victory.
However, that was not the case. Saudi Arabia held on in the first half and completely turned the game on its head in the second. Alshehri danced past an Argentinian center-back and slotted the ball past Emiliano Martinez to make it 1-1 in the 48th minute. Five minutes later, Aldawsari fired an absolute marvel of a shot and gifted the lead to the men in green.
It took some fine defending and outstanding goalkeeping on part of the Saudi Arabian players to keep Argentina out. However, there were faults on the part of the Argentinians as they just could not finish the chances they created. They were also caught offside a number of times, raising questions over their positioning. The result was historic as it was Argentina’s first defeat to an Asian nation in the history of the FIFA World Cup. It was something nobody saw coming and puts Argentina in a tough spot in a group that has the likes of Poland and Mexico, who will square off later in the day.
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Twitter was rife with praise for the Saudi Arabians as Argentina were somewhat reduced to a laughing stock. Here is how Twitterati reacted to the shocking result in the opening match of Group C. There were jokes and memes over how many offsides were called by the linesman over the course of the 90 minutes.
