The ECHO’s Chris Beesley continues his daily series of articles on Everton and the World Cup running throughout the tournament in Qatar.
Everton legend Kevin Sheedy has revealed his pride in the part he played in the biggest World Cup shock of all-time by helping Saudi Arabia’s Hassan Al-Tambakti on the road to stardom and a heroic defensive display against Lionel Messi and his Argentina team-mates. Saudi Arabia stunned Argentina by coming from 1-0 down – in a first half in which the South Americans had the ball in their net on four separate occasions only to have three goals disallowed – to defeat them 2-1 in their opening fixture at Qatar 2022.
Argentina went into the fixture at the 88,966 capacity Lusail Iconic Stadium – that will host next month’s final – unbeaten in their previous 36 matches but after a penalty from Messi, who is considered by many to be the greatest footballer of all-time, put them ahead, two spectacular strikes in the space of five minutes after the break from Saleh Alshehri and Salem Aldawsari saw them tumbling to defeat. Rated 51st in the world by FIFA’s official rankings – a massive 48 places below their opponents – the Saudis surprise success has already been dubbed the biggest upset in the competition’s history and having been roared on by large numbers of supporters who had crossed the border into neighbouring Qatar for the game itself, the jubilant kingdom subsequently declared a national holiday to celebrate the result.
