Lionel Messi Thinks Losing To Saudi Arabia Could Ultimately Help Argentina Win The World Cup

Lionel Messi thinks Argentina's shock loss to Saudi Arabia could ultimately help them win the World Cup. Messi made the claim after Argentina's semi-final win.

Lionel Messi believes that Argentina's shock loss to Saudi Arabia could ultimately help them win the World Cup.

Argentina fell to a 2-1 defeat in their opening group game.

That result meant that Argentina had no margin for error in their remaining group matches.

Argentina responded with 2-0 wins over Mexico and Poland, before beating Australia 2-1 in the round of 16.

A penalty-shootout victory over Holland followed in the quarter-finals.

After thrashing Croatia 3-0 in Tuesday's semi-final, Messi said that his team had effectively "won five finals" at Qatar 2022.

Lionel Messi pictured during Argentina's 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia :: IMAGO/NurPhoto/Ayman Aref

He is hoping that Argentina's experience of playing in so many win-or-bust games at this tournament may prove to be the perfect preparation for the biggest match of all.

"To start in such a way in a World Cup, we did not think we would lose to Saudi Arabia," said Messi at a press conference on Tuesday night.

"It was an acid test of the whole squad but we proved how strong we are. We won the other matches and it was very difficult what we did. Every match was a final and we were aware if we did not win things would be complicated for us.

"We have won five finals and I hope this is the case for the final on Sunday. We lost in the first match due to fine details but it helped us to be stronger."