Charisa Bossinakis
An overconfident punter has lost a jaw-dropping AUD $160,000 (£89,505) after betting on Argentina to defeat Saudi Arabia at the World Cup.
TAB confirmed that one football fan dropped tens of thousands of dollars on Messi's team to kick off the tournament with a win during yesterday’s (Tuesday, November 22) match.
At odds of $1.13 (£0.63), the bet would have returned the punter $180,800 (£101,063), meaning that they would’ve made only a profit of just $20,000 (£11,182).
While that's nothing to complain about, it's a very high-risk, low-reward type of bet.
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But as it turns out, luck was not on their side at Lusail Stadium.
Despite Argentina being tipped as the favourite to win, they had three goals ruled out in the first half as Salman Al-Faraj’s team perfectly executed the offside trap.
They intensified the pressure in the second half in search of an equaliser.
Two goals early in the second half, including an excellent strike from Salem Al-Dawsari, turned the game on its head, stunning football fans.
Saudi Arabia fans even began chanting, 'Where is Messi? We beat him!' as they celebrated the shock lead.
Saudi Arabia's backline continued to battle it out specularly, which saw the team achieve the biggest result of their history and condemn Argentina to their first defeat since July 2019.
The Daily Mail claims Saudi Arabia was 500-1 odds of winning the match and they did so spectacularly.
The World Cup. pic.twitter.com/s0HNgYzKdd
— B/R Football (@brfootball) November 22, 2022
Messi’s strike partner Lisandro Martinez said post-match, as per 7NEWS: “This hurts a lot. We were dreaming of starting the World Cup with a win.
“But it’s happened and now we have to train and think forward.
“We lost this game because of our own mistakes, most of all in the second half. There are details that make a difference and we need to correct our mistakes.”
However, Lionel Scaloni took the more humble approach when asked if his team went a little too easy.
"We fully respect Saudi Arabia as we do with other teams, that’s not the reason for our defeat," he told reporters, as per RFI.
"They are a good team with technical players, they are very well prepared physically."
Argentina will now face Mexico on Saturday evening in a huge game.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia will verse Poland on Saturday afternoon.
The Middle Eastern country has declared a national holiday to celebrate the shocking win over Argentina.