Saudis script ‘totally crazy’ game

Saudi Arabia scripted a 'totally crazy' game of football during their famous 2-1 win over World Cup favourites Argentina at the Lusail Stadium on Tuesday, leaving Lionel Messi and Co ruing the mistakes.

For Saudi Arabia, the hero was forward Salem Al-Dawsari and their stopper Mohammed Alowais. Al-Dawsari grabbed the world's attention with his match-winning wonder strike against Argentina but the winger has been a star in his home country for years.

After Saleh Al-Shehri's strike in the 48th minute levelled the score, the 31-year-old Al-Dawsari helped the Saudis to a stunning victory over the twice world champions when he took out two defenders with a clever turn before rifling the ball into the net in the 53rd minute. That helped his side to a stunning comeback after going 1-0 down in the first half from a Messi penalty. 

It was a typical piece of brilliance from a player who has long been known as one of Asia's best.

Argentina could not make a comeback after that, thanks to the heroics of their keeper Alowais, who made as many as five saves to keep Saudi Arabia on course for a sensational victory.  

Talking about the loss, Messi said it was a "very heavy blow" but vowed the South American champions would bounce back from the defeat.

"It's a very heavy blow, a defeat that hurts, but we must continue to have confidence in ourselves," Messi said after their shocking defeat.

"This group is not going to give up. We will try to beat Mexico," he added.

Messi also rued 'five minutes' of brilliance from Saudi Arabia that took the game away from the heavily tipped favourites for lifting the trophy of this edition of the World Cup.

In the second half, "in five minutes of mistakes that we made, we went 2-1 down and then it was really tough and we lost organization and started punting the ball," Messi said in comments broadcast by Todo Noticias.

While Messi and Co were left ruing the mistakes, Saudi Arabia's French coach Herve Renard focused in keeping the celebrations in check and prepare for the upcoming matches.

"This is football, sometimes totally crazy things can happen," said the French coach, who previously led Zambia and the Ivory Coast to Africa Cup of Nations glory.

As for enjoying the moment, Renard was eager to look ahead to the Saudis' next Group C matches against Poland and Mexico.

"(We can) just have a good celebration during 20 minutes and that's all, there are still two more games.

However, Renard said he was not entirely happy with his team, despite the stunning upset.

He added: "Some people don't understand but you can imagine that when you're playing against Saudi Arabia, the motivation is not the same as playing against Brazil."

However, Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni insisted otherwise, saying his side never took Saudi Arabia lightly. "We fully respect Saudi Arabia as we do with other teams, that's not the reason for our defeat," said Scaloni, whose team had not lost since July 2019.