Cameroon against Argentina at Italia 90. USA versus England in Belo Horizonte in 1950. Senegal taking on France in Seoul 20 years ago. Aficionados will argue about the order, but there is no doubt that Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 victory over Argentina in Doha on Tuesday will go down alongside those matches as one of the greatest World Cup shocks of all time.
Second-half goals from Saleh al-Shehri and Salem al-Dawsari cancelled out a first-half penalty from Lionel Messi to give the Saudis a real chance of qualifying for the knockout stages in Qatar. But the facts of the game were barely the start of it, the significance of the moment extending well beyond the scope of just 90 minutes.
