Despite the early exit… records for the Saudi green in the Qatar World Cup
The Saudi national team, led by Frenchman Hervé Renard, bid farewell to the current World Cup Qatar 2022, from the group stage, after a strong start that everyone considered the first surprise of the World Cup, by defeating Argentina, but lost the next two matches against Poland 0/2, and Mexico 1/2, to bottom of the third group standings, and leaving the competitions in an unexpected scenario after the great performance and brilliance against Argentina, thus exiting the first round, chasing Renard’s career with a negative number, as it happened that the Moroccan national team, under his leadership, bid farewell to the 2018 World Cup Russia competitions, in last place in the group that included Spain and Portugal and Iran, achieving only a single draw against Spain with two goals for both teams, leaving the Atlas Lions the World Cup with a single point.
Despite the early exit of the Falcons, they won many gains from the World Cup, most notably recording a historic defeat for the Argentine national team and breaking the unbeaten streak of Tango after 36 matches during which it did not know the taste of loss, and depriving it of the equation for Italy, which holds 37 matches without defeat.
The Saudi national team also achieved special records, as it recorded its fourth victory in 16 matches in the World Cup, to break the partnership with the Algerian national team, as both had 3 wins, and the Saudi green also achieved its first victory in the opening of the World Cup, after losing in the previous versions. In 4 matches in the first round, and tied in one against Tunisia, Al-Akhdar also became the first Asian team to score Argentina with more than one goal in one match in the history of the World Cup tournaments, and became the second Asian team to defeat a South American team in the history of the World Cup after the victory that Japan achieved over Colombia in the last edition.
During this version of the World Cup, Saleh Al-Shehri became the third oldest player to score for the Saudi national team in the World Cup (29 years and 21 days) after Youssef Al-Thunayan (34 years and 218 days) and Sami Al-Jaber (33 years and 185 days). Saudi Arabia also achieved the first victory for a non-European team over Argentina in the World Cup since Cameroon won in 1990.
During the current Qatar edition, Salem Al-Dossary achieved many numbers, as he became the fifth Saudi player to participate in the entire group stage during two or more editions of the World Cup, after Muhammad Al-Deayea, Hussein Abdul-Ghani, Reda Tucker, and Abdullah Suleiman, as well as Adel Fouad’s number. Anwar, the former captain of the Saudi national team, when he scored two goals in the 1994 edition in America, against the Netherlands and Mexico national teams, and this was what Al-Dosari repeated when he scored the winning goal against Argentina in the first round, then scored against Mexico in the last farewell match, as well as the number of Sami Al-Jaber, the former green star, and the Tunisian Wahbi Khazri scored 3 goals in the history of the World Cup as the most Arab player scoring goals in the World Cup.