Saudi Arabia star Ali Al-Bulayhi has revealed that he screamed at Lionel Messi that his side “would not win” in a tense exchange between the pair.
The Al-Hilal defender was involved in arguably one of the biggest World Cup shocks in living memory on Tuesday with one of the pre-tournament favourites Argentina opening up their campaign with a 2-1 defeat.
Paris Saint-Germain superstar Messi had given the South American side the lead from the penalty spot at the Lusail Stadium and had another strike ruled out by the offside flag. Lautaro Martinez was then also left frustrated as VAR chalked out his goal for a marginal decision.
Argentina, on the back of a 36-match unbeaten run, were left shell-shocked after the half-time interval as goals from Saleh Alshehri and Salem Aldawsari saw the match flipped on its head.
Al-Bulayhi let the excitement get the better of him during the celebrations of the second goal as he squared up to Messi, slapping him on the back in the process and then screamed in his face.
He has since revealed that his words to the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner were: "You [Argentina] will not win, you will not win!"
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The tense exchange was then defused by Messi’s international teammates Martinez and Papu Gomez, the pair pushing the Saudi defender away but only after he had grabbed his own shirt with pride. Al Bulayhi’s prediction certainly came true as his nation triumphed to secure a shock victory.
In the aftermath, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman declared Wednesday as a public holiday to celebrate. Messi was certainly not in a mood to celebrate and stated in the aftermath of Argentina’s defeat that they had “no excuses” for losing the match.
He said: "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. Everything happens 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."
Argentina are back in action on Saturday as they clash with Mexico, with Saudi Arabia set to take on Poland in an effort to continue their perfect start in Qatar.
