The Argentine team started the game with everything: before two minutes, a clear chance at the feet of Lionel Messi, who found the ball and defined the far post but was covered by the Saudi goalkeeper. A few minutes later, due to a grab against Leandro Paredes in a corner, the VAR called the Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic, who reviewed it and pointed to the penalty spot. La Pulga was in charge of changing it for a goal and thus opening the scoring.

Saudi Arabia rocked Argentina – and football – with two second-half goals to seal a famous World Cup victory. 

Although Saudi Arabia grew after the Argentine goal, the clear opportunities continued to be for the team led by Lionel Scaloni. They were so clear that they led to three goals disallowed due to offside position: one from Messi and two from Lautaro Martínez. In all of them, the semi-automatic VAR acted immediately and cut off the second cry of millions of Argentines.

The complement started in the worst way: Saleh Al-Shehri and Salem Al Dawsari turned it around for Saudi Arabia at 3 and 8 minutes. Bucket of cold water for the Argentine National Team.

I guess we need to remove ourselves from the moment for a second, to note that Argentina still have a decent chance of escaping the group, so still have a chance of winning the thing – in 1990, they lost their first game to Cameroon and still made the final. But they’ll need to play a lot better than today, with more intensity, aggression and intelligence.