FIFA World Cup 2022: Saudi Arabia, ranked 51 in FIFA, delivered one of the greatest upsets in football history by defeating Lionel Messi's Argentina 2-1 in their FIFA World Cup match at Qatar's Lusail stadium. Meanwhile, a video of disbelieving Saudi Arabia fans doing Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo’s world-famous ‘Siu’ celebration to celebrate their team's win has gone viral on social media. Argentina was not only the favorites to win their WC 2022 opener against Saudis tonight but are also one of the top contenders to win the marquee event at Qatar. The celebration by locals was inevitable as their team, on Tuesday, stunned the entire world by beating a star-studded squad, headed by the greatest footballer of all time - Lionel Messi.
35-year-old Messi, playing in his fifth and probably his final World Cup, gave his team a phenomenal start by putting ball inside the net inside first 10 minutes but later in the second-half, stunning goals by Saleh Alshehri and Salem Aldawsari within just five-minutes gave Saudis a historic win. Saudi Arabia's previous biggest win was 1-0 over Belgium at the 1994 World Cup.
Reacting to Argentina's shock defeat, Messi said his team isn't going to give up after 'heavy blow' and will try to get a win over Mexico in their next Group C match.
"It's a very heavy blow, a defeat that hurts, but we must continue to have confidence in ourselves," Messi said after Argentina's 2-1 loss. "This group is not going to give up. We will try to beat Mexico," he added.
Speaking via Argentina’s official Twitter account, Messi said: “We knew that Arabia is a team with good players, that moves the ball well and that advances the line a lot. We work on it, but we speed up a bit.
“There are no excuses. We are going to be more united than ever. This group is strong and they have shown it. It is a situation that we did not have to go through in a long time.
“Now we have to show that this is a real group. It’s a very hard blow for everyone, we didn’t expect to start like this.
“Things happen for a reason. We have to prepare for what’s coming, we have to win or win and it depends on us”.