Qatar 2022 has begun to be called by many as ‘The World of Surprises’. This is due to the unprecedented results in the matches of Argentina and Germany who fell with Saudi Arabia Y Japan respectively. Despite the fact that we still haven’t finished the first day of the World Cup, this edition promises to continue giving ‘hits’.
The first surprising result was carried out by the Saudis, who beat the Albiceleste team led by Lionel Messi and Scaloni 2-1. For its part, the other ‘coup’ in Qatar 2022 was the victory of the Japanese against the Germans, who in less than 10 minutes beat Manuel Neuer’s goal twice.
Under this premise, we will analyze what was the most unexpected result of the Qatar 2022 World Cup so far.
Although it is true that both nations started as favorites in their opening matches, the Argentine team starred in the blow of the first date in Qatar 2022. Why?
Unlike its pair from Germany, the albiceleste team came with a streak of 36 matches without losing. In addition, the atmosphere between the players, the press and the fans was the best. To this was added the recent coronation in the Copa América 2021 by beating Brazil 1-0 and breaking a drought without titles.
So, on paper, no one imagined that the Argentine team, called the ‘Scaloneta’, would lose in their initial debut against Saudi Arabia. This selection has gone unnoticed by many despite the fact that their league has been growing in competitiveness in recent years. Thus, nine of the starters in the match against Argentina are teammates of Andrés Carrillo in Al-Hilal.
On the other side, Germany also started as favorites in their duel against Japan, but did not maintain a regularity of matches like the Albiceleste. Let’s remember that the last world championship that the Germans won was in Brazil in 2014 and since then they have not been able to recover that level that led to the departure of Joaquín Low.
Along the aforementioned lines, Japan was already coming from a positive World Cup record by reaching the round of 16 in Russia 2018. In that match, they lost narrowly to Belgium. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia was underestimated.
In conclusion, both results are surprising, but if the level of the four nations is compared, Germany’s defeat against Japan could be normalized, while Argentina’s, with Messi, was not expected by even the most Saudi fans.
Source-larepublica.pe