How Saudi Arabia frustrated Argentina to secure a famous win

Going bold and be brave was the plan for Hervé Renard when his Saudi Arabia side faced Argentina. Yet, it worked out well for his team. So how did they pulled off a win that might change group C?

Rather than spending an entire paragraph to say that the World Cup is happening, describe how the first two days went, blah blah, let’s cut to the chase. Saudi Arabia just secured a 2-1 win over Argentina in their opening match in the 2022 World Cup. Let’s be honest. If Lionel Messi and Argentina had won the match and the referee had given them a couple of their disallowed goals, many would have labelled Hervé Renard as a mad man for being bold and brave against the South American champion.

But the reality is not only did his plan work out perfectly, but it also helped his Saudi Arabia side secured all three points in their first match in Qatar. Their win definitely shocked many, especially when Argentina is considered as one of the favourites to win the World Cup. Yet, Lionel Scaloni’s side came up short and was left frustrated against a well-organised side. Now, the question is, how did Renard and Saudi Arabia pulled off a masterclass at the Lusail Stadium?

Simplicity

When it comes to solid defensive football, we have seen many teams and managers adopted a formation with a back three in recent seasons. A few noticeable examples include Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta (3-4-3/3-4-2-1), Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea (3-4-2-1), and Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United (3-5-2). Without mentioning the pressing phase, those formations allow teams to create a solid mid-to-low block with numerical superiority in the central area and when they shift their defensive block from side to side. And the mentioned teams have achieved a certain level of success while established themselves as a strong defensive unit throughout recent seasons.

Yet, Renard went with a formation that was very basic and simple, and in a good way. A 4-4-2 formation allowed the French manager to create a narrow and tight mid block inside of the middle third. Saudi Arabia’s defensive line was pushed up very high, and at times, they were even near the halfway line. But the away side were not looking to press Argentina in an aggressive way as they still allowed Cristian Romero, Nicolás Otámendi, and Lisandro Martínez to hold the ball up to the middle third (On some occasions, the strikers did try and press the opposition’s centre-backs inside their own defensive third). Because the strikers did not chase after Argentina’s centre-backs aggressively, this kept the distance between the defensive line and the players up front short and created a solid defensive block inside the middle third.

When Argentina tried to attack down the central area early in the first half, their players usually found themselves being surrounded by two or three Saudi players and had very little space to work with. This, in turn, limited the space that Messi and Rodrigo de Paul would usually have whenever they receive the ball in between the opposition’s lines. But this is Argentina that we are talking about and they always have the players that can make the difference in the most dire situations. However, the Saudis were well-prepared for this.

Discipline

Argentina immediately recognised that brute forcing through Saudi’s brick wall was not going to work. But on a few occasions that they did break through the block, it was by using through balls and lofted passes that were aimed towards Messi or Lautaro Martínez’s runs into the space behind Saudi Arabia’s defensive line. If they could not enter the final third by going through the Saudi’s defensive block, they would go over the block to achieve what they wanted.

This was the risk that the Saudi had to face when they chose to play with a high line and they were prepared to deal with that risk. Note that this is the team that Renard has assembled a month ahead of the tournament, not weeks. With much more time to prepare than most teams, of course the Saudis must have a plan of what to do, and this was the match that they showed what they had worked on a month before the World Cup started.

The away side were very well-organised at the back and executed their offside trap perfectly. In total, Renard’s side provoked ten offsides from Argentina, including four that led to disallowed goals, and most of them came inside or near the middle third. The defenders knew where each other were and they showed a very high level of discipline to maintain a straight line while no one stepped out of their position. This is the result of a training camp that lasted for a whole month and it was something that Renard and his players wanted to achieve. And they showcased that to the world while performing it almost flawlessly.

Argentina’s response

Once again, Argentina responded to Saudi Arabia’s defensive tactic almost immediately. While using through passes to send Messi and Lautaro into the space in behind the opposition’s defence, the home side also made a decent number of passes to either flank for Papu Gómez and Ángel di María. The goal was to put the wingers up against Saudi Arabia’s full-backs in 1v1 situations where they hoped that Gómez and Di María would beat the full-backs and get the ball into the final third or the 16-yard box. But this is where the individual performances of the Saudi defenders stood out.

On the right-hand side, Saud Abdulhamid usually received support from right winger Firas Al-Buraikan to create 2v2 situations to defend against Gómez and Nicolás Tagliafico, who was constantly making overlapping runs. At times, Al-Buraikan even dropped deeper than the rest of the midfield and created a temporary back five for the away side. This hindered the ability to create chances of both Gómez and Tagliafico and the impact that they made was not as heavy as they had hoped.

On the opposite flank, Yasir Al Shahrani was put to the test against a skilful Di María as Argentina clearly preferred to attack down the wing where the Juventus player was present. But Al Shahrani had a good performance to limit what Di María could do whenever he had the ball. Even though the Argentinian right winger still managed to create a few chances, Al Shahrani came out on top on most occasions either by intercepting passes before it could get to Di María, or directly involving in a duel with the Argentinian player to win the ball back. It is a shame that the match came to an end for Al Shahrani in an unfortunate way and hopefully he is recovering well.

Special mention goes out to Hasan Al-Tambakti as well. While he did not make as many defensive actions as Al Shahrani, some of the actions that he made were crucial to prevent Argentina from scoring more than one goal, including that key tackle to stop Messi from scoring a clear goal.

And not to mention the performance of goalkeeper Mohamed Al-Owais, who made many good saves to prevent the Argentinian players from finding the equaliser in the second half. It was a team effort, but those three players definitely stood out as they left everything on the pitch to help their team secured a win.

Conclusion

This match and Renard’s bold and brave tactic could have gone either way. Messi and his teammates had tried and used different ways to break down Saudi Arabia’s structured and well-organised mid-block. On one day, they would have secured a win that would put them top of the table and solidified their state as the favourite to win the World Cup. But this is the reality that we are having. The extra month of preparation went a long way for Saudi Arabia and the way that the match unfolded showed that as they frustrated Argentina with their mid-block and did not leave too much space for the opposition to operate in. Is this a masterclass from Renard? Some might say, yes, but that depends on how you view this victory of Saudi Arabia. Nonetheless, this victory have set up a very interesting situation in group C and this group is definitely worth keeping an eye on for the rest of the group stage.