Lee Dixon was critical of Tottenham’s Cristian Romero and his defending during Argentina’s shocking 2-1 FIFA World Cup defeat to Saudi Arabia in Qatar on Tuesday, as he told ITV Sport.
When Lionel Messi put one of the World Cup favourites ahead inside the first few minutes, many thought it was the start of a potential drubbing for the Saudi side, well, think again.
Despite going behind, the Saudis were all over the Copa America winners, including scoring inside the first few minutes of the second half when Tottenham’s Romero ‘couldn’t catch up’ with Saleh Al Shehri before he slotted home with a brilliant low drive into the bottom corner.
Former Premier League defender Lee Dixon then couldn’t believe his eyes when, a team ranked outside of the world’s top 50, went ahead through a brilliant curling effort from Salem Al Dawsari.
Dixon commented on how Emi Martinez got a hand to that dazzling goal and how the Aston Villa goalkeeper possibly should have saved it given it went ‘so slow’ into the back of the net.
In the end, Saudi Arabia produced one of the most shocking results in World Cup history and two Tottenham and Aston Villa players were at the heart of it.
Saudis first goal: “They win the ball back in midfield and it’s just a long ball down the middle,” said Dixon. “But once he gets away, Romero can’t stay with him.
“It’s through the legs of the defender. Martinez can’t get anything near it. It’s right in the corner. You do have to say it’s poor defending right down the middle of the pitch.
“When the ball gets played outside of Romero, he doesn’t think there is any danger, but Al Shehri gets onto it quickly. That first touch takes him away from Romero and he can’t catch up. When he does catch up, he just lunges in and that just opens up a little bit of space to slip it through his legs and into the far post.
On Saudi’s second goal: “It looked from here like it got some sort of deflection because it went into the goal so slow – when he gets hold of the ball, the touch is brilliant, then he just checks. Martinez gets a hand on it. He can’t palm it away.”
SAUDI SHOCK THE WORLD
This result will go down as one of the shock results in World Cup history and perhaps a wake-up call to the rest of the big guns in the competition.
Many were backing Argentina to go all the way in Qatar, and they can still do that given it’s the opening game they have lost, but it’s the manner of defeat that is perhaps most worrying.
For Saudi, they will be revelling in their greatest-ever win on the international stage and perhaps dreaming that they can reach that pot-of-gold knockout stage.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
