At three in the afternoon local time, Argentina suddenly returned to its Russian nightmare of 2018. Or worse, much worse.
Then he started with a draw against the tender Iceland -the first corner that ended up derailing him in the round of 16 against France-, and this time he ended up in the ditch against Saudi Arabia, a stone on the field and a green scream in the stands.
No less than 30,000 Argentines filling half of undulating Lusail whites attended a skid that no one saw coming, as proud as they landed in the Gulf from the other part of the world.
However, Lionel Scaloni's public explanations about his team's poor game hardly added depth.
Soccer stuff, World Cups and modern VAR times, he said.
“It's hard to assimilate because they scored two goals against us in five minutes, I think in their only two shots on goal.
We don't have to analyze more than that.
There is no other option than to get up and win the next two games [Mexico and Poland]”, the coach started, as calm as he was flat when passing the scanner to the display of his team.
“The first part was all ours, but at the break we said that the match was strange.
Any play could change it, and that happened.
In the second, despite not playing well, we had our moments.
We couldn't get better, but the World Cup has these things.
The party escapes us in nothing.
By the time we wanted to figure it out, we were going 1-2 ″, he expanded.
"We lost due to our mistakes," acknowledged Lautaro Martínez at the foot of the field.
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Saudi Arabia leaves Argentina dreaming
It was the first Albiceleste loss since the 2019 Copa América semifinals against Brazil.
No one doubted that this Tuesday they would equal Italy's record of 37 unbeaten duels, but north of Doha no party awaited them.
A cante of the first order, and not only because of what it means as a trigger for Argentina, already forced to have a kidney injury to straighten out her life in Qatar.
Racano in the analysis of the game in Argentina, on the other hand, Scaloni did look, at least four times in the press room, at VAR and the semi-automatic offside that is released in this edition.
Technology caught him several times in the first half in actions that could have raised the second goal for the Albiceleste.
According to his analysis, there was his own disaster.
“The new regulations deprive you of a goal.
We accept it because it is so, ”he first pointed out.
"At another time, those offsides were a goal," he continued.
"Milimetric reasons for offside," he added.
“It's the new technology…”, he stated.
Subtle comments, without accusing them of illegality, with which he sprinkled his 15 minutes of appearance before the media.
“We still think the same.
Before the match they gave us as favourites, but the World Cup has this, ”he added.
"Thanks to Allah"
After the defeat, Messi stayed in the middle, placed his arms on his hips and began to receive condolences from everyone who passed by.
The game had ripped him off on a tile, jogging.
If he got bored upstairs, he went downstairs a bit.
This is how the ten
moved
and so did Argentina, benefited from a penalty as soon as he started that La Pulga holed out as he wanted and sure that the rest of the day would be taken care of by the law of gravity and the risky rival plan of raising the line to look for offside.
It was Saudi Arabia, after all, they all seemed to take for granted.
The two goals in a row from his rival waved the arms of Messi, who had the tie shortly after.
He smelled it all over the stadium, until Hassan Al Tambakti appeared like a bolt of lightning to block his head-on shot inside the box.
He then had a free kick that sent her to sticks (from rugby) and a loose header.
The Argentine rebellion came, above all, from the Di María band.
"Messi is a leader and he is going to take it forward.
Today we don't play as clear as other times", commented the Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, who avoided looking at the VAR.
"He is the same for everyone," he assured.
Argentina pressed down the stretch, but did not scare goalkeeper Mohammed Khalil Al Owais, named player of the afternoon, as much.
He was asked three questions and three times he "thanked God, Allah" for the feat.
“He has been present at every minute.
In God's name, I'm happy”, proclaimed the goalkeeper with the generous mustache.
His coach, Hervé Renard, French, also looked at the sky, although differently.
"Today the stars have aligned," he admitted.
"We made history, this will go down in history," he congratulated himself.
Although, according to his analysis, the game did not turn out so bright.
“Tactically, in the first half we were not good.
We were compact, but the pressure on the central defenders and Paredes was not enough.
We cannot play like this, we have to give everything, ”he claimed in the midst of euphoria.
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Classification
Group C | PT | P.J. | PG | PE | PP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 KSA | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
two MEX | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
3 POL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
4 ARG | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Group C | PT | P.J. | PG | PE | PP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 KSA | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
two MEX | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
3 POL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
4 ARG | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |