Argentina vs Saudi Arabia 1-2 – World Cup 2022 – as it happened

Poland’s Robert Lewandowski missed a penalty – and his chance to finally claim a World Cup tournament goal – in a 0-0 draw with Mexico that left Saudi Arabia as the early leaders of Group C after their shock win over Argentina.

Mexico played most of the attacking football in Stadium 974 but Poland won their penalty in the 56th minute when Hector Moreno pulled down Lewandowski, only for the Polish captain to shoot too close to Guillermo Ochoa, who saved.

Read our live updates from the match here.

We had a bit of everything in that Group C match, a slightly dodgy penalty, several disallowed goals and a shock result that people will be talking about for years. Saudi Arabia has a statement win in, and will fancy their chances of progressing with their toughest game in theory done with.

Attention now turns to Denmark v Tunisia as Group D gets under way. Follow live updates here.

Thanks and goodbye.

They only had just over 30 percent of possession but, most importantly, took the chances that came their way. The two goals from al-Shehri and al-Dawsari in a mad five minutes will be hard to replicate by Hervé Renard, but his team worked hard without the ball, which will please the Frenchman.

While losing your opening game is never ideal, there are plenty of teams who’ve done so and still gone on to have good World Cups. However, Messi and Co would have earmarked this opener for three points and now face tough games against Poland and Mexico.

They will both be mandatory viewing now, as Argentina fight to stay in the Qatar World Cup.

We’ve got a full match report here which should help you make sense of that crazy 90+ minutes. Best of luck:

Saudi Arabia stun Argentina with inspired second-half performance

It’s safe to say, these ones will be going on for some time.

They only had two shots on target but they made them count. Argentina looked wasteful in contrast, who spent a lot of time camped around the box of Renard’s team but failed to create too many clear-cut chances.

They need two big performances against Mexico and Poland to have any chance of progressing from Group C.

There are shocks and then there was the game we had today. Here are some of the others that rank high in all-time World Cup upsets:

The biggest shocks ever witnessed at the football World Cup

A true World Cup shock that will go down in the annals of time!

No one before kickoff – unless maybe you were wearing Saudi Arabia’s green – would have predicted this.

The Green Falcons will have their keeper Al-Owais to thank who caught almost everything that came his way in this match. What a result!

Argentina will rue those several disallowed offside goals in the first half.

Alvarez heads a looping ball into Al-Owais’ hands.

It looks like that may be that for Argentina.

100 mins: Argentina 1-2 Saudi Arabia

Goalkeeper Al-Owais looks upset after he clatters into his own player and accidentally hits him in the head with his leg.

Medical personnel are on and attending to the stricken player.

Al-Burayk is on as his replacement.

96 mins: Argentina 1-2 Saudi Arabia

The keeper is the latest to get a caution from the referee for an altercation with Otamendi.

92 mins: Argentina 1-2 Saudi Arabia

Al-Abed and al-Buraikan go off for al-Amri and Haitham Asiri. Al-Abed also gets booked as he’s taken off, presumably for wasting time.

Eight minutes of added time in this game.

89 mins: Argentina 1-2 Saudi Arabia

Messi heads straight at the keeper and the best chance Argentina have had for some time comes to nothing.

They need a big moment – who will step up?

84 mins: Argentina 1-2 Saudi Arabia

Saud Abdulhamid picks up a caution for Saudi Arabia.

82 mins: Argentina 1-2 Saudi Arabia

If our resident AI robot Kashef could feel human emotions, he would be hanging his head in shame right now.

Or is there a chance for him to be proven right?

Al-Shehri goes off after putting his side in front to be replaced with the more defensively minded al-Ghannam. Renard will hoping his side can see it out from here.

79 mins: Argentina 1-2 Saudi Arabia

Our reporter in the stadium:

“The stands with Argentina supporters no longer look as festive as they did before. There doesn’t seem to be much enthusiasm to uplift their team up, either. Just a lot of worried faces.

“An Argentinian child supporter was shown on the big screen biting her nails. The Saudis, on the other hand, are trying to get a massive wave started.”

They’re knocking on the door but no one is answering right now.

Saudi Arabia defending like a team that could be about to pull off potentially the greatest result in their footballing history.

Still plenty of time for things to change though.

73 mins: Argentina 1-2 Saudi Arabia