Argentina falls in its worst World Cup debut 1:06
(CNN Spanish) -
Argentina suffered a historic defeat against Saudi Arabia in its World Cup debut in Qatar, losing 2-1 at the start of Group C.
The Albiceleste team, one of the great favorites to win the World Cup, arrived in Qatar with a memorable 36-game unbeaten record that they achieved in the South American qualifiers and the games they have played in the last three years.
But now Saudi Arabia, only with little possession of the ball and great effectiveness, defeated the team led by Lionel Scaloni.
Summary of Argentina's defeat against Saudi Arabia in Group C of the World Cup in Qatar
Saudi Arabia surprised at the start of the second half and turned the result around against Argentina
These are some curious facts about Argentina's defeat against Saudi Arabia, according to information from DataFactory:
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Offsides
There was 10 to 1 offside.
In this match, Argentina had 10 advanced positions against 6 in the entire 2018 World Cup in Russia, in which they played 4 matches.
The two Argentine players who were
offside
the most times were Ángel Di María and Lautaro Martínez, 3 each.
ball possession
Saudi Arabia only had 33% of the ball possession.
He even had poor passing accuracy: just 67% against Argentina's 87%, 87%.
However, it was enough for him to win.
Of the 232 passes it generated, 156 were correct and 76 were incorrect.
Saudi Arabia only shot 3 times in the entire match: all 3 shots were on target and 2 ended in goal.
Argentina shot 12 times in the match: 7 on target, 5 outside;
but he only scored one goal (and a penalty)
infractions
Saudi Arabia tripled the number of fouls against Argentina, committing 21 against 7 for the albiceleste.
The two players who committed the most fouls were Abdulelah Almalki and Saud Abdulhamid, with 6 each.
Fouls, Shots and Offside Widgets:
The Argentine defeat
Argentina lost a World Cup match that they were winning at half-time for the first time since the 1930 final against Uruguay (Argentina was winning 2-1).
Argentina and Saudi Arabia had their first confrontation in the FIFA World Cup on Tuesday.
Before today's game, Argentina had played 4 duels against Saudi Arabia in the overall history and never lost: they had 2 wins and 2 draws (7 goals for and 3 against), according to Data Factory.
The first matches against Saudi Arabia were in International Friendly Games played in Australia on July 6 and 16, 1988: 2-0 and 2-2.
Later, they met in the FIFA Confederations Cup — the 1992 King Fahd Cup — with an Albiceleste victory 3-1 (goals by Leonardo Rodríguez, Claudio Caniggia and Diego Simeone; Saeed Owairan scored for the Saudis) in Riyadh.
The two teams met in an International Friendly on November 14, 2012, in Riyadh, where they drew 0-0.
World Cup Qatar 2022