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Though the 2022 FIFA World Cup is only a few days old, it’s already delivered two massive upsets that have shaken world football to its very core. Though much of the talk ahead of the finals in Qatar revolved around issues off the field of play, it’s now very much the action between the first and final whistle that is front and center.
The tournament’s group stage has thrown up early surprises, and more are sure to come; if you’d like to take a look at a list of every world cup game, ranked in order of interest, then this will stand you in good stead when it comes to scheduling your viewing pleasure, so as to not have you eternally placed in front of a screen for the best part of a month.
The nature of the two earth-shattering World Cup surprises is almost as shocking as the results themselves. Let’s start with Argentina vs. Saudi Arabia.
The Messi no-show
This game was billed by many as the Lionel Messi show. The PSG man has already announced this is his fifth and final World Cup finals appearance, and it was seen as a great chance for the 35-year-old to rack up the goals and push his claim for the Golden Boot. It didn’t really turn out that way.
Yes, Messi netted the opener from the penalty spot, but a second goal never came. Indeed Argentina saw goals chalked off by VAR ahead of the half-time whistle, and one can only imagine that Saudi’s national team coach, Herve Renard, delivered a half-time team talk on par with Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday because his side came out fighting.
Amazingly they netted twice and then held firm to pull off a truly epic win over Argentina, a side that many have predicted will win the tournament. Messi and his team-mates can still turn things around, but that doesn’t mean that their shocking defeat will be forgotten any time soon.
Germans grounded
In a similar fashion, Germany took the lead against Japan through a penalty; this time put away by Man City’s Ilkay Gundogan. That was followed by some sparkling moves from teenage wonderkid Jamal Musiala, all of which failed to secure a much-needed second goal.
Japan kept themselves in the game and then went to town. Two subs then netted, Ritsu Doan and Takuma Asano, to drive the stadium wild as they held out against German advances to pick up a crucial win.
The defeat for Germany leaves their hopes of World Cup progress in the balance, not least because they’ll most likely need to get something from their clash with Spain, and the Spanish are looking good, having put Costa Rica to the sword in a seven-goal thumping. The World Cup has also seen other strong displays from supposed inferior opposition, with Tunisia holding Denmark to a draw and Iran netting twice against England and there are sure to be many other surprises before the group phase comes to a close, and you can expect one or two unlikely nations among the last 16 and then in the confines of the knockout rounds, who knows what could happen?
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