Head coach of Saudi Arabia, Hervé Renard, has suggested that his team defeated Argentina in Tuesday’s 2022 FIFA World Cup tie out of luck.
Renard claimed the stars in the sky were aligned for Saudi Arabia and that Argentina underestimated his team as they produced one of the greatest World Cup shocks against the Copa America champions.
Lionel Messi gave Argentina an early lead just 10 minutes into the encounter, but Saleh al-Shehri equalised early in the second half before Salem al-Dawsari scored the winner for Saudi Arabia.
Speaking at his post-match press conference, Renard said, “When you are coming into a World Cup, you need to believe in yourself. Everything can happen in football. Sometimes the opponent isn’t at their best motivation. This has happened to us when playing a lower-ranked team. This is what other people don’t understand.
“Imagine Lionel Messi playing versus Saudi Arabia. He will say they’ve to start well and win, but you know the motivation is not like it would be playing Brazil. This is normal.
“We have made history for Saudi football and it will stay forever. That’s most important, but we also need to look forward because we still have two very difficult games to play.
“Today, all the stars in the sky were in line for us, but we can’t forget that Argentina are a fantastic team. They came here without losing in 36 games, they’re South American champions and they’ve an amazing player, but this is football. Sometimes something completely crazy can happen.”