Saudi Arabia defender slapped Messi on the back and shouted ‘you will not win’ after going 2-1 up
Saudi Arabia defender Ali Al-Bulayhi slapped Lionel Messi on the back and told him ‘You will not win’ after his side went 2-1 ahead against Argentina during their incredible victory.
Saudi pulled off one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history after beating much-fancied Argentina on Tuesday morning.
Messi had put Scaloni’s side ahead from the penalty spot after just 10 minutes and threatened to ease to a comfortable victory.
They also had three goals disallowed during the first half with Messi and a potential brace from Lautaro Martinez being chalked off for offside.
And the underdogs bit back in the second half.
Saleh Al-Shehri and Salem Al-Dawsari scored within five minutes of each other to give Saudi a 2-1 lead shortly after the resumption.
Incredible.
Saudi’s tails were up and they wanted to let Argentina know they meant business.
Well, Al-Bulayhi did anyway.
A video has emerged of the defender slapping Messi on the back when Saudi went 2-1 ahead.
He then mutters a few words to the Paris Saint-Germain star, leaving Messi looking rather shocked. His Argentine teammates then come to his rescue.
What was being said?
Well, after the match, Al-Bulayhi was asked what he said to arguably the greatest player of all time to which he replied: “I told him: you will not win, you will not win!”
Considering there were still 35 minutes – and the lengthy injury time – still to play, that was very brave of Al-Bulayhi.
But he was spot on, wasn’t he?
After the shock defeat, Messi admitted there are no excuses for Argentina.
We knew that (Saudi) Arabia is a team with good players, that moves the ball well and that advances the line a lot. We work on it, but we speed up a bit.
“There are no excuses. We are going to be more united than ever. This group is strong and they have shown it.
“It is a situation that we did not have to go through in a long time. Now we have to show that this is a real group.
“It’s a very hard blow for everyone, we didn’t expect to start like this. Things happen for a reason. We have to prepare for what’s coming, we have to win or win and it depends on us.
“We have to go back to the base of who we are. We have to think about what’s to come.”
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