The football world is feeling crazy after experiencing the surprising 2-1 win for Saudi Arabia against the favourites Argentina in Group C of the FIFA World Cup last Tuesday (22nd November) afternoon.
While legendary Lionel Messi successfully converted a penalty in 10 minutes to open the scoreline in style, Argentina experienced three more goals ruled out in offside.
In the second half, Saleh Al-Shehri equalized the scoreline in just three minutes. Five minutes later, Salem Al-Dawsari put the Green into the surprising 2-1 lead. While the two-time World Cup winners tried their best to return to the game, the Asian side were desperate to deny any further goals from the favourites and succeeded in style.
Lionel Messi
The first Argentine to play five FIFA World Cup editions, Lionel Messi, became the first Argentine player to score in four FIFA World Cup tournaments. Meanwhile, after Uwe Seeler, Pelé, Miroslav Klose and Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi became the fifth player to score in four different FIFA World Cups.
Argentina: Records, stats and facts of the match
(Winning streak)
While Argentina were eyeing to equal Italy’s world record of longest unbeaten streak in men’s international football (37 matches), Saudi Arabia stunningly ended their 36-match unbeaten streak with a 2-1 win.
(Lost after opening the scoreline)
Last time Argentina lost a World Cup game after opening the scoreline: (in penalty shootouts) vs Germany in the quarter-finals of the 2006 edition, (in full-time 90 minutes) vs West Germany in the Group 1 of the 1958 edition.
(Lost after leading in the half-time)
It was the only second time when Argentina lost a World Cup match after leading at half-time. During the FIFA World Cup 1930 final, they lost against Uruguay by 2-4 despite leading that game by 2-1 at half-time.
(Latest WC record)
In their last seven World Cup matches, Argentina won only once, drew twice (including one penalty shootout win) and lost four matches.
(vs AFC teams)
Argentina lost against an AFC team in any international game: once each against Israel (in 1969; Israel were the AFC members between 1954 and 1974), China (in 1984), Japan (in 2010) and Saudi Arabia (in WC 2022).
(WC Group Stage start with a red mark)
It was the fifth time when Argentina started the FIFA World Cup Group Stage with a defeat. Their previous such records were in World Cup 1958 (1-3 vs West Germany), 1974 (2-3 vs Poland), 1982 (0-1 vs Belgium) and 1990 (0-1 vs Cameroon).
(Playing WC final after losing first game)
Argentina reached the final of the FIFA World Cup 1990 and finished as the runners-up despite losing their opening game of the tournament (0-1 vs Cameroon). Apart from that, West Germany (1982), Italy (1994) and Spain (2010) also reached the FIFA World Cup finals after losing their first games in their respective WC tournaments.
(Winning WC after losing tournament opener)
Spain are the only team to win a FIFA World Cup (2010) after losing their opening game of the tournament (0-1 vs Switzerland).
(WC exit from Group Stage)
Last time Argentina experienced a World Cup Group Stage exit at the 2002 edition. Incidentally, Asian countries South Korea and Japan hosted that tournament.
Also Read | FIFA World Cup 2022: Saudi Arabia - World Cup Records and Stats and FIFA World Cup 2022: Argentina - World Cup Records and Stats
Saudi Arabia: Records, stats and facts of the match
(1st AFC side in record book)
Saudi Arabia became the first Asian team to beat Argentina in a FIFA World Cup match. La Albiceleste’s previous World Cup record against the AFC team was four wins out of four games.
(1st AFC side to score 2 goals in WC)
Saudi Arabia became the first AFC side to score more than one goal against Argentina in a FIFA World Cup match.
(Last 3 Argentina beaters in WC)
Before Saudi Arabia, all the last three winners against Argentina in the World Cup played in the same WC tournament finals.
(Argentina beaters in WC since 2006)
Since FIFA World Cup 2006, all the winners against Argentina at least qualified for semi-finals in the same World Cup competitions. Let’s see if the Green continue this bright record.
(Argentina beater in WC Group Stage without further round progress)
Czechoslovakia are the only team who beat Argentina in the World Cup first-round group stage match but didn’t qualify for the next round. In the World Cup 1958, Czechoslovakia beat La Albiceleste by 6-1 but failed to advance to the quarter-finals by losing the next playoff match against Northern Ireland.
