No one expected that Argentina's unbeaten run of 36 consecutive games would be ended by Asian teams, and on such a big stage as the World Cup; No one expected that Saudi Arabia, which had scored only 5 goals in the previous 9 official matches, would give Argentina two consecutive strikes on the World Cup stage, but this is how football happened.
Argentina underestimated the enemy, facing the weakest opponent in the group stage, Argentina hoped to win the match with the lowest consumption, but it turned into a war of attrition, and it could not win the opponent. Saudi Arabia used its performance to tell Asian teams that as long as they stick to 2 points against the South American technology flow, then there is no problem in winning their opponents.
Starting lineup: Asian team's first 4 defenders
In previous games, Iran and Qatar have put their posture very low, they have adopted a three-centre-back formation, status defense, hoping to score goals through counter-attacks, but Saudi Arabia does not see it that way. Saudi Arabia used a four-back formation to raise the defensive line to deal with the fierce attacking Argentina, and the Saudis showed great confidence, and they once fought to a high position of 235 to press for the position.
Obviously, Saudi Arabia knows that its defense cannot withstand Argentina's infiltration attack, so Saudi Arabia wants to put the defense line forward and clamp down on Argentina's midfield.
Saudi Arabia's success: made the Argentine offside 8 times
Argentina's desire to win the game with the lowest power is very obvious, Argentina made 286 attempts in the first half, most of their passes came from the central midfielders backwards, crossing, using the penetration of forward players, using a long pass to create offensive opportunities. Messi and Di Maria were Argentina's main catch-ups, but their movement was beaten by Saudi Arabia's integrity.
The question is, since Saudi Arabia has adopted high-post tactics, how can it be unguarded against Argentina's behind-the-scenes ball? In the first half, the referee blew Argentina for 7 offsides, the number of offsides in one game has exceeded Argentina's entire number of offsides in the 2018 World Cup, and Argentina's 3 offside goals were also judged offside by the VAR, and there was no problem with these three decisions.
Saudi Arabia limits Argentina's attack: stepped up confrontation with upper body and received 6 yellow cards
Since Argentina's low-power kick doesn't work, it's bound to turn to positional warfare. The Saudis' way of dealing with the Argentine positional warfare offensive was very simple, that is, to intensify the confrontation. Saudi Arabia had 15 confrontations and nine tackles in the first half, and far exceeded that figure in the second half.
The top three players in the steals list of this game are all Saudi players, which also led to Saudi Arabia getting 6 yellow cards in the whole game, and the price of 6 yellow cards in exchange for a victory in a game, especially the victory against Argentina, can be said to be no loss at all. Argentina has no way to fight Saudi Arabia, although Saudi Arabia's pace can not keep up with Saudi Arabia, but Saudi Arabia has always insisted on the ball is too good to play, can not stop the foul, would rather send set-pieces than Argentina to pull up the speed.
The key for Saudi Arabia: the goalkeeper will be the best player
The Saudi goalkeeper showed the importance of an attacking goalkeeper, scoring a game-high score of 7.5 (Sofa rating at 98 minutes), even for players who scored Saudi goals.
In this game, the Saudi goalkeeper made 1 clearance from outside the box, 2 high interceptions, 4 saves in the box, he let Argentina's 14 shots come back without success, and the only offensive opportunity came from Messi's penalty.
How did Saudi Arabia win? The lax of Argentina's backline
Saudi Arabia's win was actually a fluke, Argentina took the lead in the first half with Messi's penalty because they didn't want to consume too much, so Argentina's pace was very slow and the players were not nervous at all. Saudi Arabia took advantage of Argentina's staring to score two goals in a row, and Romero's turnaround speed speaks volumes.
Revelation: Death cannot be kept
In the case of successive losses of Asian teams, Saudi Arabia used its performance to save a trace of face for Asian football, and in the face of the favorite Argentina, Saudi Arabia used its performance to illustrate: it is impossible to hold on, even if it uses defensive counterattack tactics, it cannot be passively defended, but actively defended. So how to actively defend? That is to play more actively, take the initiative to fight, pull up the defensive line, and the goalkeeper attack.
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