On the third matchday of the Qatar World Cup, the much-anticipated "Pampas Eagle" Argentina team finally appeared to face the "Desert Eagle" Saudi Arabia team from Asia. Unexpectedly, in the afternoon when Qatar was close to 30 degrees Celsius, the "cold wind" hit.
In the first half, Argentina led 1-0 thanks to penalties scored by Messi, and three goals were disallowed for offside. But in the second half, the situation changed, and the Saudi team scored two goals in 5 minutes, directly overtaking the score. In the end, Saudi Arabia defeated America's champions Argentina 2-1.
The Russell Stadium is not only the "starting place" of Argentina's World Cup, but also the venue of the final of the event, and the "Pampas Eagles" naturally hope to play seven games and return to the top. However, Messi and his team "broke the sand" in their first game and had to redouble their efforts after two games in the group stage. Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, made a good start while halting the decline of Asian teams losing both days.
With the aura of winning the Copa America and the Euro-American Cup, Messi's Argentina team once again launched an attack on the ultimate goal of the Hercules Cup. Messi's charisma in today's football world is unmatched, and since he has been confirmed to be playing in the World Cup for the last time before the match, fans around the world are expecting the Argentine to achieve the most successful result.
The biggest advantage of the "Pampas Eagles" is that the team is a team that revolves around Messi, but with more blossoms and extreme unity. This is also thanks to manager Scaloni, who has not been pinned on high hopes. So far, Argentina has an impressive record of 35 unbeaten games in all competitions, and the transition from flashy to pragmatic is unprecedented success.
As an important part of the Asian football map, Saudi Arabia has reached the World Cup finals many times, but its past record is not outstanding, and it has even been reduced to a "tragic backdrop" many times, and the West Asian team has been waiting for the opportunity to prove itself. In the Asian Round of 12 of the World Qualifiers, Saudi Arabia was in the same group as China, and beat Japan and Australia with a record of 7 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat, and won the group top.
At the beginning of the game, Messi hit the mountain with a powerful shot. In the 7th minute, Slovenian referee Winčić checked the VAR and ruled that Paredes was violated by Saudi players in the box, Argentina won a penalty, and captain Messi scored his first goal in this World Cup, which was also his seventh goal in the World Cup, equalling Ronaldo's World Cup goals.
In the 22nd minute, Messi received a pass from the back and inserted it forward, scoring another goal, but he was helpless to be offside and was ruled invalid. Just five minutes later, Inter Milan striker Lautaro Martinez scored with a direct shot, but the goal was again invalidated by VAR as offside.
In the first 30 minutes of the game, "offside" flew in the sky, and the Argentine players repeatedly tried to create offensive opportunities from behind the Saudi team's defense, but failed. After that, Lautaro Martinez scored another goal, but again offside.
After the first half, the two sides did not achieve anything, and Argentina entered the second half with a 1-0 advantage.
Argentina had as many as seven offsides in the first half, which also shows that the Saudi team's defensive position is not conservative. The second half started with a sudden change, and in the 48th minute, Saudi Arabia tore a gap in the Argentine defense, and No. 11 Shehri burst into the box and scored from the outside to make it 1-1.
In the 53rd minute, Saudi Arabia's No. 10 Salim kick from the top of the arc of the penalty area once again penetrated the gate guarded by Emiliano Martinez, and the Saudi team won 2-1 Argentina.
Trailing behind, Argentina made three consecutive substitutions, with Lisandro Martinez, Enzo Fernandez and Alvarez replacing Romero, Paredes and Gomes.
In the 62nd minute, Saudi goalkeeper Ovis magically blocked Tagliafico's close-range shot in front of goal, and Argentina missed the chance to equalize.
In the 83rd minute, Messi received a cross and headed in from close range in the box, and the shot was again denied by Saudi goalkeeper Oweis.
In the 100th minute, Manchester City striker Alvarez headed in front of the goal with a close-range header, and the ball was still obtained by Saudi goalkeeper Ovese.
After more than 13 minutes of extra stoppage time in the second half, Argentina still could not score another goal to equalize the score, and in the end, Argentina was defeated by Saudi Arabia 1-2 and missed the opening of the World Cup group stage. In the next round of Group C, Argentina will face Mexico and Saudi Arabia will face Poland.
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