​Argentina, the heavy favorites for the World Cup, debuted with a shock defeat at the final tournament in Qatar, with Messi, Lautaro, Di Maria and co losing 2-1 to Saudi Arabia.

Lionel Messi in the debut match at CM 2022 QatarPhoto: Michael Zemanek / Shutterstock Editorial / Profimedia

Argentina was unexpectedly defeated by Saudi Arabia

The match in Group C started perfectly for the Cougars: in the 10th minute, Lionel Messi opened the scoring with a shot from 11 meters.

It took two moments of lethargy from the Argentine defense for Al Shehri (48) and Al Dausari (53) to set up the winner. This is the first big surprise after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Know:

  • Lionel Messi became the first Argentinian player to score in 4 World Cup finals (2006, 2014, 2018, 2022). Thus, the PSG star surpasses Gabriel Batistuta (1994, 1998, 2002) and Diego Maradona (1982, 1986, 1994).

The 2022 World Cup in Qatar matches on Tuesday is LiveBlog on HotNews.ro.