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Likely before you woke up this morning, Lionel Messi and the Argentina National Team — one of the top two or three favorites to win the 2022 World Cup — lost their opening match to Saudi Arabia.
While losing the first match of the group stage is never ideal, what makes matters worse for Messi and Argentina is the fact that, with pregame odds of +1800, Saudi Arabia, who won the game by a score of 2-1, was able to pull off the biggest upset in the history of the World Cup.
Speaking to the media after the game — in fact, reports indicated that an Argentinian journalist was crying in the mixed zone — a subdued Messi said that there are “no excuses” for the shocking defeat.
“The truth? Messi said when asked how his teammates were feeling after the match.
“Dead. It’s a very hard blow because we did not expect to start in this way.’ We expected to get the three points that would have given us calmness. Things happen for a reason. We have to prepare for what is coming, we have to win, and it depends on us.”
“There are no excuses. We are going to be more united than ever. This group is strong, and we have shown it. It is a situation that we haven’t gone through in a long time. Now we have to show that this is a real group. It’s a painful loss but we have to continue to trust ourselves,” he said. “We must turn the page and move on. We have to analyze what went wrong. Focus on the positives and turn our attention to the game against Mexico.” [via ESPN]
Luckily for Messi and Argentina, though, the other two teams in their group, Poland and Mexico, played to a scoreless draw on Tuesday which means that La Albiceleste will still be able to advance to the knockout rounds if they win their next two games.
Argentina will look to right the ship in their second match of the group stage when they take on Mexico on Saturday before closing out group play with a match against Robert Lewandowksi and Poland next Wednesday, November 30.
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