Salem Al-Dawsari scored the goal of the tournament so far to help Saudi Arabia produce one of the shock football scores in World Cup history. One of the biggest moments in any World Cup finals was when Al-Dawsari grabbed the ball out of the air, dribbled past two Argentina players, and curled his finish past Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez. After a contentious VAR decision, Lionel Messi gave one of the pre-tournament favorites the lead from the penalty spot (10), but Saleh Al-Shehri equalized just three minutes into the second half to set up an enormous upset. Although Argentina’s 36-game winning streak, which had started with a loss to Brazil three years prior, was ended by the outcome, this was the greatest day in Saudi Arabian football history.
Saudi Arabia had no shots at goal in the first half and historically has had a poor strike rate in front of goal. Saudi Arabia has recorded an unwelcome blank in the first half of a game three times out of the ten times that have occurred since 1966, making what happened against Argentina all the more improbable. Midfielder Abdulelah Al-Malki claimed that the Saudis’ coach, Herve Renard, who was fired by Cambridge United in 2004 fired them up like never before.
Following a VAR review after ten minutes, referee Slavko Vincic gave Argentina a penalty when Leandro Paredes’ shirt was tugged by Saud Abdulhamid inside the area. Following Cristiano Ronaldo, Miroslav Klose, Uwe Seeler, and Pelé among the players to score at four different World Cup competitions, Messi scored without error. Argentina was then denied three goals in the first half due to offside flags, with Messi being stopped once before Lautaro Martinez twice found the back of the net but were disallowed by VAR.
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