Argentine star Lionel Messi called his country’s 2-1 loss against Al Akhdar in the first match of the two teams’ campaign at the World Cup in Qatar a “hard blow” and a “painful defeat”. : “We knew they would play well. It’s a very hard blow, a painful defeat. But we must not lose faith in ourselves, this group of players will not give up, we will try to beat Mexico on Saturday in the second leg. .
Messi’s son, Mateo, was so upset by the defeat that he burst into tears after the match, while his brother Thiago did the calculations to find out Argentina’s chances of qualifying, according to what their father confirmed.
Mateo (seven years old), accompanied by his mother Antonella and his two brothers, Thiago (ten years old) and Ciro (four years old), watched the match between Argentina and our national team from the stands and enthusiastically celebrated when Messi scored a goal for Argentina before Al -Akhdar managed to turn the score in his favor.
In statements published by the British newspaper The Sun, Messi said: “After the match against Saudi Arabia, Matteo left the stadium in tears.” Argentina managed to win two matches against Mexico 2–0 and Poland with the same result and qualify Poland to the round of 16.