(Argentina-Saudi Arabia 1-2) Lionel Messi (35) and Argentina come into the World Cup in Qatar on 36 straight games without defeat. Then they met Saudi Arabia – and left straight away.

– Argentina were awful in the second half, but all credit to Saudi Arabia, Sky Sports pundit and former Manchester United player Roy Keane said on ITV.

– A great reminder that you can’t just show up and rely on your qualities, he concludes.

According to analysis firm Gracenote, Saudi Arabia’s win was the biggest World Cup shock in history, writes the BBC.

– It hurts so much. We have high hopes to start off with a win in WC. But it’s over, and now we have to train and focus on what’s to come, says Argentina forward Lautaro Martínez Brand.

After a first half with Messi scoring and Argentina’s three goals ruled out, the World Cup drama escalated sharply at the Lusail stadium, Qatar’s largest World Cup facility – and venue for the controversial pre-Christmas championship final.

Saleh Al-Shehri and Salem Al-Dawsari were completely shocked Lionel MessiArgentina – and pretty much the entire football world – when they turned things around in five minutes.

This is how VG sports studio reacted to the shocking loss.

Argentina are the reigning champions of the Copa América (2021) and are chasing a 37th straight match without defeat. With a draw against Saudi Arabia, ranked 53 in the world, they will touch Italy, who stopped at just 37 matches unbeaten last year.

– One of the biggest shocks in World Cup history, said TV 2 commentator Øyvind Alsaker as Saudi Arabia’s players cheered wildly on the Qatar grass.

North Korea’s victory over Italy in 1966 and the United States’ victory over England in 1950 were historical shocks proposed to put those achievements in perspective.

Messi and his team-mates never quite recovered from the shock, nor did any last-minute prodding pay off. More than 13 minutes added.

Also four years ago, at the World Cup in Russia 2018, the World Cup started with a surprise for Argentina. Then that Iceland, which is responsible for the feat, in the country’s first ever World Cup match. Hannes Halldórsson, a man with a past in Norwegian football, saved Messi’s penalty – and thus saved 1-1 for Iceland.

In Qatar, Lionel Messi looked, at least for a little while, fresh as he began his final World Cup stint as a player.

It looked simple enough as the 35-year-old fired a spot-kick into an empty corner, sending Argentina ahead before 10 minutes had played.

With that, the ball magician has placed himself on an exclusive list of players who have scored in four World Cup finals.

Only Pelé (Brazil, 1958–1970), Uwe Seeler (West Germany 1958–1970), Miroslav Klose (Germany 2002–2014) and Cristiano Ronaldo (2006–2018) have done so before Lionel Messi.

Ended up being a pale version of Messi at the Lusail stadium.

16 years after his first World Cup goal, against Serbia in June 2006, the Argentinian is still going strong.

Now he is naturally chasing his first World Cup gold, against an experienced Argentina, with four players aged 34 or over in Tuesday’s starting eleven. The question is how good this Argentinian edition actually is. Expectations have been high before this championship.

The 35-year-old Messi has said that this will be his last football World Cup.

At the top, Inter strikers Lautaro Martínez and Lionel Messi can be seen chatting almost same language.

If they knew the offside rule it would be nice to be Argentinian. In the first half, the duo were exposed by FIFA’s offside technology and were disqualified for three goals as a result.