FIFA World Cup: The greatest football shocks in the tournament

The FIFA World Cup 2022 has seen its first upset of the tournament as Saudi Arabia emerged 2-1 winners over favourites Argentina. Although Lionel Messi gave Argentina the lead, Saudi scored two quickfire goals in the second half and then held on to get a monumental victory.

Here are some of the previous upsets of the World Cup in the folklore-

Italy 0 - 1 Costa Rica (Brazil, 2014)

Italy was shocked by Costa Rica in the second group match in Brazil. They started the campaign with a win over Uruguay and proved it was not a fluke. The Central American country went to till the quarterfinals stage and lost on penalties to the Netherlands.

France 0 - 1 Senegal (Korea/Japan, 2002)

Defending Champions Frace bite the dust and it was Senegal who created shockwaves with a 1-0 win against them. This was the opening match of the tournament and France was regarded as a footballing powerhouse, but alas! it was Senegal who prevailed, which was also their first ever match in World Cup.

England 0 - 1 USA (Brazil, 1950)

England was regarded as a big team at that time and the novice USA beat them in that year.

Germany 0 - 1 Mexico (Russia, 2018)

Mexico stunned the world in the opening match of the group in Russia with a 1-0 win over defending Champions Germany. Hirving Lozano scored the winning goal for El Tri in that match. He prepares to feature in this one as well in a few hours as Mexico takes on Poland.

Brazil 1 - 2 Norway (France, 1998)

Norway beat Brazil in this match coming off just draws in their first two group gamees, while Brazil won their first two. Bebeto gave Brazil the lead but the Scandinavians scored twice in the last seven minutes to create a massive upset.

Argentina 0 - 1 Cameroon (Italy, 1990)

World Champions Argentina was beaten by African side Cameroon in this match. Diego Maradona and co were pale and suffered a shock defeat in the opening match of the tournament in Italy.

West Germany 1 - 2 Algeria (Spain, 1982)

Algeria did the unthinkable in their first-ever World Cup match, beating 2-time champions and favourites.

France 0 - 2 Mexico (South Africa, 2010)

A France team that managed to qualify for the World Cup under the massive controversy of a handball goal, had a torrid period in South Africa. In the second group stage match, Mexico beat the 2006 Runners-up 2-0 with goals from Javier Hernandez and Cuauhtemoc Blanco.