Argentina national football team vs saudi arabia national football team

Saudi Arabia's Salem Al-Dawsari celebrates scoring their second goal. (Reuters) Winger al-Dawsari made history on Tuesday when his goal in the 52nd minute of the Falcons’ match against Argentina brought the Saudi side to victory. The 31-year-old not only clinched the win for his country, but became the second-ever Saudi player to score in two world cups, joining Sami al-Jaber, after he scored against Egypt in the group stages of the 2018 World Cup. Al-Dawsari started off his career at Riyadh’s Al Shabab, before moving to Al Hilal. He made his World Cup debut in 2018 where he scored two goals. If he scores a third this year, he will equal al-Jaber’s record for the most World Cup goals scored by a Saudi. Saleh al-Shehri Saudi Arabia's Saleh Al-Shehri celebrates scoring their first goal at the Qatar World Cup. (Reuters) The 29-year old Saleh al-Shehri made his debut at the Portuguese S.C. Beira-Mar, where he stayed on for a year, reportedly on loan from the Al Ahli club. There, in a match against Moreirense, he scored his first goal, with some reported saying that the event made him the first Saudi national to score in Europe. Al Arabiya English could not confirm this claim. He plays in the forward striker position and scored one of two goals for Saudi Arabia in the match against Argentina on Tuesday. Mohamed al-Owais Saudi Arabia goalkeeper Mohammed al-Owais plays the ball against Argentina during a group stage match during the 2022 World Cup at Lusail Stadium. (Reuters) Sau...

But the Green Falcons flipped the game on its head in a stunning 10-minute period after half-time, Saleh Al Shehri levelling with a low effort and Salem Al Dawsari firing them ahead to spark pandemonium in the stands. Having shown their ruthlessness at one end, they demonstrated a ruggedness at the other, holding a stellar Argentina front line at bay to secure only their fourth World Cup win and throw the group wide open. Lionel Scaloni's Argentina came into the tournament among the favourites, on the back of a 36-game unbeaten run that included winning the 2021 Copa America. They now have it all to do to keep alive their hopes of a first global triumph since 1986 and give Messi a fitting ending to what is very likely his World Cup swansong. They face Mexico on Saturday, while Saudi Arabia take on Poland. • 'Seismic' for Saudi Arabia but don't count Messi out One of the World Cup's biggest shocks Well, who saw this coming? Argentina were among the elite teams heading to Qatar - tipped by many to go all the way, with a star-studded squad as robust at the back as they are ruthless in attack. In 2018 in Russia they were chaos personified, chopping managers before the event and starting XIs during it before going out in the last 16. But under Scaloni they got their act together in a serious way. They do not concede many and score lots - in five games before the World Cup they kept five clean sheets and netted 16 times - and had not tasted defeat since losing to Brazil in the f...

India, and the south Asia region, is known more for its love of cricket and the countries have never participated in major international football tournaments. But every four years, in corners of MB Rajesh, a Kerala minister, told the Guardian his heart “carries the blue and white stripes”. “That country and its football team symbolises the irresistible urge of humanity to liberate themselves from oppression,’ said Rajesh. “I relate to their fights with justice and survival.” The football obsession in Indian states such as Kerala and West Bengal dates hundreds of years, to the times of British colonial rule when it was played among soldiers. Though it has never qualified for a World Cup, India is home to some of the oldest football clubs in the world. In Kerala, India’s most leftwing state which has been ruled by a socialist government for decades, the widespread love of Argentina’s national team was partly credited to the revolutionary legacy of the Latin American country, which has fierce support in the Indian state. A supporter of Argentina watches the opening-game loss to Saudi Arabia on 22 November 2022. Photograph: RS Iyer/AP “Argentina is the land of Messi and Che Guevara. Whether it wins or not in the final, I will continue to be a diehard fan,” said TM Thomas Issac, an economist and member of Kerala’s ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist). Ahead of Sunday’s final, the state has descended into a blue-and-white frenzy, and public screenings, where thousands will ...

As Saudi Arabia pulled off the first big surprise of Qatar 2022, defeating tournament favourites Argentina 2-1 in Tuesday’s early kick-off at Lusail Stadium, here is a look at some other major first-game upsets in the FIFA World Cup. This list includes only first-game upsets for the respective teams and not all group-stage upsets. World Cup 2022 | West Germany 1-2 Algeria (1982) Arguably the biggest upset of the FIFA World Cup at the time, tournament debutants Algeria managed to defeat two-time champions and favourites West Germany in a back-and-forth match. Before the game, the Germans had been condescending towards their African opponents, with coach Jupp Derwall saying, “if we don’t beat Algeria, we’ll take the next train home.” Algeria defeated West Germany, becoming the first African nation to beat a European opposition in a World Cup. Unfortunately, Algeria was not able to qualify out of the group as Germany and Austria played the infamous, allegedly fixed 1-0 game at Dijon on the final day of the group stages. The “Disgrace of Dijon”, as this game would later be called, would lead FIFA to hold the final stage of group games at the same time from the next tournament onwards. Don't Miss | Argentina 0-1 Cameroon (1990) The world expected defending champions Argentina to enthral in the opening match of Italy 1990. After all, the champions boasted of the great Diego Maradona and Cameroon’s best player was the 38-year-old Roger Milla, who had a very respected career in Fr...