“We participate in order to exceed expectations. In every edition of the World Cup there are many surprises and we hope to achieve one.” The intuition of the Saudi-French coach, Herve Renard, was in place because his team detonated one of the biggest surprises in the history of the World Cup finals, appending Tuesday a historic loss to Argentina, the candidate to win the World Cup in Qatar with its star, Lionel Messi.
Saudi Arabia played the match of a lifetime once morest the Latin American giants (2-1) and came out with a victory that reverberated around the world.
Renard admitted that his team was lucky, especially in the first half when it fell behind with a goal following 10 minutes had passed from a penalty kick that was successfully paid by Lionel Messi, especially since the referee ruled out three goals for Argentina for offside, according to what was stated in a report by “Agence France Presse”.
“All the stars were smiling at us in the sky,” Ronard said following the match. “This is sport. You can play this match ten times and only win in one game. We deserved to win.”
“We were bad in the first half and we didn’t press as we should,” added the coach, who focuses on team play, before his team turned things upside down in the second half and scored two goals to come out with a historic victory.
Crazy boss
But Ronar, 54, heard his players motivating words between the two halves that had the effect of magic on their performance, so they were another team, and every one of its members shone, from goalkeeper Muhammad Al Owais, who was chosen as the best player in the match, to Salem Al Dosari, who scored an even better goal and became the second Saudi to score. In two different World Cups following Sami Al-Jaber, according to AFP.
Saudi defender Abd al-Ilah al-Maliki summed up what happened during the break by saying, “We have a crazy coach who motivated us between the two halves and said words to us that made us want to eat grass impulsively.”
Ronard’s achievement is no less than two other achievements in his career, represented by leading Zambia to win its first title in the African Cup of Nations in 2012, and he repeated it with Ivory Coast three years later, becoming the first coach to lead two different teams to the continental title.
And he received the training of the Saudi national team in July 2019 following an experience at the head of the Moroccan coaching staff and participation in the World Cup in Russia, in which he was eliminated from the first round, but he made good performances, most notably his tie with Spain.
Technical stability
Under his supervision, Al-Akhdar witnessed technical stability during these years, leading his group in the qualifying rounds for the Qatar World Cup, ahead of Japan and Australia.
He praised the facilities provided by the Saudi Football Association and the Minister of Sports, as well as the words of the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, during a visit by the national team a few days before the start of the World Cup, and said in this regard, “He told us that there is no pressure imposed on the players, and we have to show a beautiful image of Saudi football only.” “And I think it’s a smart move. It’s perfect, realistic communication.”
In order to prepare his players for the football wedding, he entered a training camp in the last six weeks, unlike most other teams, especially the big ones, following their players joined them only 10 days before the start of the World Cup.
“Participation without ambition means nothing,” he told the official FIFA website, days before the start of the tournament.
He added, “We do not participate for the sake of strolling in Doha, but rather in order to present our best level and make the Saudis proud of us on the stadium and in Saudi Arabia. They came here in huge numbers and we have no choice but to satisfy them,” according to AFP.
During the match, the player, Yasser Al-Shahrani, suffered a severe injury during the last minutes of the Saudi Arabia match once morest Argentina, following a collision with Al-Owais, to leave the stadium, and Muhammad Al-Buraik participated in his place at the 98th minute of the match.
well deserved, GK got The Saudi national team, Muhammad Al Owais, won the best player award in the match between Saudi Arabia and Argentina, which ended with the victory of the Arab team 2-1 in a resounding surprise, on Tuesday.
The Saudi goalkeeper Al Hilal presented a strong match, as he succeeded in blocking many dangerous opportunities for the stars of the Argentine national team, Messi, Di Maria and Martinez, and he allowed only one goal to hit his net, which came in the first minutes from a penalty kick.
And according to what was reported by “Archyde.com”, Al Owais, 31, saved his goal from several dangerous opportunities, to prove the validity of his coach Hervé Renard’s decision to rely on him.
The Saudi national team achieved one of the biggest World Cup surprises in history, on Tuesday, when it beat Argentina 2-1.
Agence France-Presse, in a previous report, shed light on Six biggest surprises It took place in the history of the World Cup, which began in 1930, and Saudi Arabia’s victory was among them.
