Lionel Messi remorse ‘five minutes of mistakes’

• Lionel Messi begins World Cup with 2-1 defeat to Saudi Arabia.
• Argentina had three goals disallowed in the first half for offside.
• Messi says he was not surprised by threat posed by world’s second-lowest ranked team.

Lionel Messi bemoaned Argentina’s shocking second-half defeat to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, but said he was not surprised by the threat posed by opponents ranked 48 places lower in the world rankings.

After Argentina’s 2-1 loss in Group C, Messi told Argentine media, “It’s a situation that this group of players has never experienced, it’s been a while since we suffered such a tough blow, we didn’t expect to start like this.”

Messi began his fifth World Cup by kicking off the scoring with a penalty in the 10th minute, and Argentina had three goals disallowed in the first half for offside.

In contrast, he claimed that in the second half, “in five minutes of mistakes that we made, we went 2-1 down and then it was really tough and we lost organisation and started punting the ball.”

Despite Saudi Arabia being the second-lowest ranked team in the competition, Messi said his team was aware of the threat they posed.

“We had confidence in their ability to compete if given the chance. They did not surprise us because we were aware of their capabilities.”

In order to win the one major championship that has eluded Messi in his otherwise glittering career, Argentina must now concentrate on defeating Mexico and Poland in their upcoming group games.

Without a doubt, we must succeed now or lose. It’s up to us to correct our mistakes and return to our core values, said Messi, whose team had been on a 36-match winning streak before the shocking outcome at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar.

“We’re fine, obviously hurt by the outcome, and very resentful. However, people must have faith in this team to uphold their expectations, and we must go all-out in the upcoming two games. We’ve participated in similar games before, so we’ll do well.

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