The contrast in mood between the two camps was glaring at the Lusail Stadium. Saudi Arabia had created one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history beating Argentina 2-1 in a Group C match and were celebrating wildly. The losers trudged back, shoulders down. And much credit for this brilliant show would go to Herve Renard, Saudi Arabia’s coach.

The Frenchman, 54, has the distinction of being the only coach to win the African Cup of Nations with two teams — Zambia and Ivory Coast — and showed the world what it takes to beat a team who were unbeaten for 36 matches.

If you have a plan, and stick to that, even the best of teams can be tamed. With Saudi Arabia, he instilled such confidence at the back that they had Argentina falling to the off-side trap not once but thrice. It’s a risky ploy to play that trap. Even a minuscule mistake can lead to disaster. On Tuesday, Renard’s men had complete faith in themselves that they would be able to pull it through.

“We knew how Saudi Arabia play. We prepared the game knowing that they come out with an advanced defence. The offsides were by millimetres,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said later.

Saudi Arabia marked Lionel Messi with discipline and that ensured that Argentina could not do much upfront. And when with the ball, they did not get scared.

Renard thanked the stars and said the challenge is to keep their feet on the ground after such a tremendous win.

“All the stars in the sky were aligned for us, but don’t forget Argentina are still a fantastic team,” he told reporters. “This is football, sometimes totally crazy things can happen with motivation. We can just have a good celebration during 20 minutes and that’s all, there are still two more games. When you come to the World Cup, you need to believe in yourself, anything can happen in football,” Renard said.

Abduleah Almalki, the midfielder, spoke about how Renard prepared the players for this match. “He made us cry motivating us and at halftime, his pep talk did the job.”

Lautaro Martinez, who consistently failed to beat the off-side trap, was sad. “We lost this game because of our own mistakes. In the second half, we just could not perform. We will sit and analyse and will try to correct our mistakes,” he said.

Before Tuesday, Saudi Arabia’s history at the start of the World Cup was poor. They had lost to Russia 0-5 in the inaugural match in 2018 and got a 0-8 hammering from Germany 20 years back. “We have to stay calm,” Almalki said.

Renard was in Russia at the 2018 World Cup with Morocco. It was the African country’s first qualification since 1998. In 2019, he resigned after Morocco’s shock round-of-16 exit from the African Cup of Nations and came to Saudi Arabia. And here he is. The man who mastered Messi.