Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez has insisted that Argentina’s shock defeat to Saudi Arabia could be a good thing for their World Cup hopes, despite the initial hurt.
Argentina took on Saudi Arabia in the first game of Group C this morning, looking to get their World Cup campaign off to an impressive start.
Lionel Scaloni’s side are one of the tournament’s favourites and appeared to be on their way to a comfortable victory when Lionel Messi converted a tenth-minute penalty.
They then dominated the first half but saw three goals ruled out for offside as Saudi Arabia’s high line caught out Messi and denied him a second as well as Lautaro Martinez twice.
That came back to haunt them as Saudi Arabia came back in the second half, with Saleh Alshehri finishing superbly beyond Aston Villa goalkeeper Martinez.
They then took a surprise lead five minutes later as Salem Aldawsari twisted and turned in the box before firing into the corner with a goal that will live long in the memory.
Saudi Arabia then held on with a superb defensive performance, denying Argentina throughout the second half to secure all three points and a memorable World Cup victory.
The defeat was a major blow to Argentina’s hopes of glory, but Martinez insists it could be a blessing in disguise.
“The dressing room is fine, obviously today is going to hurt like it hurts all Argentines, but if we want to win, if we want to win the World Cup, it’s good that we stumbled today,” ESPN report the Aston Villa star saying.
“(Scaloni said) the same thing I say to you, a slip is not a fall. It’s going to hurt a lot today and that’s normal, but tomorrow we know that we have two finals.
“Obviously we are a little hurt by the first defeat, and in a World Cup. Today we expected to play like a final, we didn’t, I think when we scored the first goal, we relaxed a bit, and we weren’t convincing.”
