2022 Qatar World Cup: Argentina vs. Saudi Arabia

Submission 2,207

Part of a series on 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar. [View Related Entries]

Overview

2022 Qatar World Cup: Argentina vs. Saudi Arabia was the debut match of the two teams in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which became one the trending topics of the World Cup due to the match being marked by a turnaround for the Saudis, which led to a series of memes over Argentina's defeat.

The Match

On November 22nd, 2022, the anticipated match between Argentina and Saudi Arabia^[1] started with an exciting first half, as Argentina scored a penalty early on in the game, followed by three others that were disallowed for offside^[2]. In the match's second half, Saudi Arabia turned the tables, scoring two goals in the 7th and 11th minutes. The game ended with Saudi Arabia's victory with a 2-1 final score.

Brazilians Mocking Argentina

The Brazil-Argentina rivalry^[3] dates back a long time and it arises every time the two countries play football matches. After the Argentinian's defeat in their first game in the 2022 World Cup, Brazilians flooded the internet with memes making fun of the team's loss, like this Twitter^[6] post by @sccpmenes commenting about his wish to root for Saudi Arabia. The post garnered 16,700 likes and 794,100 views in less than 24 hours (seen below).

"Você não pode torcer contra a Argentina, é a última copa do Messi tem que torcer pra ele"Eu as 7 da manhã: pic.twitter.com/jGCaCDcn6K

— SCCP Memes (@sccpmenes) November 22, 2022

Saudi Arabia's Reaction

On TikTok,^[4] Saudi Arabian os.nx shared his friend's reaction when his team scored the first goal against Argentina. The video, posted on November 22nd, 2022, had 4.2 million views and 162,000 likes in less than 24 hours (seen below, left). TikToker urfavkhabibi^[5] also shared his reaction to seeing Saudi Arabia's goal, receiving 39,000 likes and 429,200 views in less than 24 hours (seen below, right).

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7168808910822853889

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7168812145725984006

IShowSpeed

The YouTuber streamer IShowSpeed also commented about the game, comparing his viral offside goal meme^[5] with Messi's. The post on his Twitter account on November 22nd, 2022, received 88,000 likes and 6,300 retweets in less than 24 hours.

who was more offsides now🤣🤣😁 #pessi pic.twitter.com/wa5eyhePUp

— Speed⭐️ (@ishowspeedsui) November 22, 2022

Crying Messi

The "Crying Messi" meme resurfaced as the Argentinian captain team lost the first game of his final chance to win a World Cup. The Brazilian influencer @fred_b12 shared a video on Twitter^[7] showing Saudi Arabians shouting "chora Messi!" in Portuguese, translating to "cry Messi." His post garnered 11,300 likes and 107,000 views in less than 24 hours (seen below).