Ramón Díaz, the coach of the executioners of Argentina

The al hilal It is the most winning team in the Saudi league with 18 titles, double that of the second in history, Al-Nassr.

There, the “Pelado” Diaz He had two stages (2016-2018 and 2021-present) and in both he won titles. But the protagonists of the day against Argentina are not the only ones, 12 of the 26 called up by the Saudi Arabian national team belong to his team, of which 7 were starters in the World Cup debut.

In the middle of the year, during an interview with FIFA, the former DT champion with River had already warned those led by lionel scaloni about the virtues and football progress in recent years of Saudi Arabiamade up entirely of footballers from their local football. “The Saudi players have a lot of quality and they are going to complicate things for Argentina”he remarked at the time.

In Saudi Arabiaand between 2018-2019, Ramon Diaz He also had an experience (although without Olympic laps) at the helm of Al-Ittihad, the third highest winner of the club with 8 titles in the Saudi Professional League, which began to be played in the 1975-1976 season. Now, with Al Hilal, he is the last champion and in the league today he is in 4th place, five units from the top.

The defeat of Argentina vs Saudi Arabia

Despite the fact that the Argentine team started better and managed to take the lead from the start with a goal from Lionel Messi from a penalty, and with an uneventful first half, the Arabs turned it around in the second half with goals from Saleh Al-Shehri and Salem al-dawsari. In addition, the Argentine team had three goals canceled through VAR.

The defeat represented a bucket of cold water for the triumphant path that the Albiceleste had taken to the world championships, which ended an impressive streak of 36 games without losing. But, to this is added, that it happened at the hands of a rival -in the first instance- considered “accessible”: Saudi Arabia was the worst ranked team by FIFA of those classified for Qatar.