Create your SBS On Demand account to stream all 64 matches of the FIFA World Cup 2022ᵀᴹ live and free any time on your favourite device.
Lionel Messi has lamented Argentina's shock second-half capitulation against Saudi Arabia in one of the World Cup's great shocks but has asked his country to trust in the players to fight back.
"Obviously, we have to win now. It's up to us to fix what we did wrong and get back to the basics of who we are," said Messi, whose team had been on a 36-match unbeaten run prior to their 2-1 defeat at the Lusail Stadium on Tuesday.
"We're OK, obviously hurt by the result, very bitter. But people must trust that this team will not let them down and we are going to go for it in the next two games.
"We've played games of this nature before and we're going to perform well.
"Now's the time to be more united than ever, to show how truly strong we are."
Messi said he was not surprised by the threat from opponents 48 places lower in the world rankings.
"It's a situation that this group of players has never been through, it's been a while since we suffered such a tough blow, we didn't expect to start like this," Messi told Argentinian media.
Starting his fifth World Cup, Messi had opened the scoring with a 10th minute penalty and Argentina had three goals disallowed for offside in a free-flowing first half.
"In five minutes of mistakes (in the second half) that we made, we went 2-1 down and then it was really tough and we lost organisation and started punting the ball," he said.
He added that his team knew Saudi Arabia, despite being the second-lowest ranked team in the tournament, could hurt them.
"We knew they were a team who would play if we let them ... They did not surprise us, we knew they could do that."
Argentina now have to focus on beating Mexico and Poland in their next group games in search of the only major title that has eluded Messi in his otherwise glittering career.
Catch up on Argentina v Saudi Arabia the way you want with the full replay and 3, 10 and 25 minute highlights all available on the SBS On Demand Match Hub.
