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Saudi Arabia will be eyeing another huge World Cup upset against a South American team when they face Uruguay in their Group H opener.
Though they ultimately failed to get out of their group, Saudi Arabia produced one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history at Qatar 2022 as they beat Argentina 2-1 in their first game.
Argentina recovered from that setback to go on to lift the trophy, but Uruguay will want to avoid having a similarly poor start to overcome as they aim to reach the knockouts after suffering a group stage elimination in 2022.
Though the expansion of the tournament and qualification places for the eight best third-placed finishers have removed a significant amount of jeopardy from the group stage, Uruguay can still ill-afford a losing start to their campaign in a group that also features favourites Spain.
Marcelo Bielsa’s side go into the game in underwhelming form having failed to win any of their last four games, with that run featuring a 5-1 defeat to United States.
Uruguay have also only scored more than one goal once in their last seven games, and there will be pressure on Bielsa, who will lead his third different South American side (also Argentina and Chile) at his third World Cup, if an upturn does not materialise against Saudi Arabia.
Bielsa left Uruguay’s record goalscorer Luis Suárez out of their squad for the tournament, having previously faced public criticism from the former Barcelona and Liverpool star.
The goalscoring burden will fall on another former Liverpool striker, Darwin Nunez, though much will be expected of Real Madrid star Federico Valverde, especially against a Saudi Arabia side whose only win in 2026 so far came against Puerto Rico.
Saudi Arabia’s 0-0 draw with Senegal in their final warm-up game may have boosted their belief. However, they have scored just two goals outside of the win over Puerto Rico, with evidence they can avenge their 1-0 loss to Uruguay at the 2018 World Cup thin on the ground.
Team news for Saudi Arabia v Uruguay
Saudi Arabia will be without goalkeeper Nawaf Al Aqidi.
Jose Gimenez (ankle), Ronald Araujo (calf), Giorgian de Arrascaeta (calf), Matias Vina (muscle) and Sebastian Caceres (head) are all doubts for Uruguay.
