![]() A horizontal pass to Otamendi would be a pressing trigger for him to move up on the centre back. The right 8 (Al-Faraj or Al-Abed after the substitution) usually had a higher starting position, forming somewhat of a front two. The roles of the 8s were quite different, also due to Argentina’s asymmetric approach in possession. When Paredes decided to drop deep, Al-Shehri looked to press the first line with a bended run. If this occurred, then the ball-far 8 normally moved across on Paredes. However, he would press a centre back at times as well, guiding Argentina to one side. ![]() Al-Shehri’s (striker) main task was to shut down Paredes, using his cover-shadow. Saudi-Arabia used a 4–1–4–1/4–4–2 hybrid mid-block in the first half. Though, let’s have look on Saudi-Arabia’s defensive mechanisms, which prevented most of Argentina’s attacks: To be fair, this structure was at times suboptimal to progress, as the Argentines left the centre fairly unoccupied, which only allowed them to play high balls in behind. The wingers held the width, while Messi and Martinez usually occupied the half-spaces. ![]() Moreover, De Paul mostly occupied the right half-space or the centre higher up but could drop into the first line of the build-up too. To begin with, Argentina initially lined-up in a 4–4–2 on paper, which however resembled more of a 4–1–5/4–2–4 in possession with Paredes having the license to drop deep, creating a different shape at times as well. However, Saudi-Arabia’s defensive setup still deserves a big praise. Obviously, the offside goals aren’t included and with a bit more luck, at least one of them would count. Nevertheless, when looking at the xG time map above, between Messi’s penalty goal and Tagliafico’s high quality chance around the 65th minute, Saudi-Arabia did a good job at stopping the Argentines. Moreover, Argentina created enough in possession to win this game, without even including the three offside goals. It can be said that Saudi-Arabia was lucky, as normally a team won’t score two goals out of an xG of 0,14. ![]() However, the xG numbers (0,14 for Saudi-Arabia and 2,23 for Argentina) would suggest something different. It was arguably the biggest upset of the World Cup: Saudi-Arabia beat Argentina by 2–1 in the first group game. Everything was visible and effectively executed by different sides against initial favourites at this World Cup. Pressing high up the pitch, going man-to-man, using a clever mid-block or defending deep. A key factor to most of these successes were their defensive approaches. In keeping with that theme, this tournament provided a lot of surprising performances by “small nations” against “big countries”. It will certainly be remembered as a great one from a sporting perspective and with amazing stories such as Messi finally winning the title with Argentina or Morocco making a whole continent proud by reaching the semi-finals. From Saudi-Arabia’s high line, USA’s clever mid-block, and Japan’s 5–4–1 to Morocco’s rock-solid low-block Introduction ![]()
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