No matter what your sport is, who doesn’t love a good underdog story? The Saudi Arabian national team, sitting at spot 51 on the FIFA rankings, have managed to hand Messi’s number 3 ranked Argentina a loss in their first game of the tournament.
After falling to an early 0-1 deficit after a successful penalty from Messi, the team in green rallied in the second half and ultimately came out on top 2-1, behind goals courtesy of Saleh Alshehri and Salem Aldawsari, and a world class performance from Saudi keeper Mohammed Alowais to stave off some close calls.
The stands were erupting in green waves, as thousands from the Kingdom made the trip down to Qatar to support their players, it’s unlikely they expected this kind of a start facing off against perhaps the best player and team in this year’s World Cup.
If this opener is anything to go by, this is going to be a World Cup for the ages. Truly a historic, and deserved, win.