Roy Keane in fiery on-air clash during Argentina World Cup debacle

Football legends Roy Keane and Graeme Souness have been involved in a heated argument on air during Saudi Arabia's all-time upset over Argentina at the FIFA World Cup. Argentina took the lead against Saudi Arabia when VAR intervened and awarded the South American outfit a penalty.

HORROR: Socceroos brutalised by France in 'awful' scenes at World Cup

'UTTER DISGRACE': Fury over 'terrible' incident at World Cup

POWERFUL MOVE: Commentator's outfit goes viral at World Cup

The officials deemed Leandro Paderes was pulled down in the box after a challenge from Mohamad Kanno. However, shirt grabbing is a common occurrence in football and many fans were left stunned the penalty was awarded even when there wasn't much of a protest from Argentinian players.

Lionel Messi stood up to convert the penalty as Argentina entered half-time full of confidence. This is when Manchester United legend Keane clashed with Souness over the decision.

Keane claimed the penalty shouldn't have been awarded. After watching a replay, presenter Laura Woods explained referees are trying to crack down on wrestling in the box.

“The reason for giving this is because the referees and officials have been asked to look out for blocking and holding without looking at the ball, no intention of playing the ball. Is that what we see here Graeme?" she said. “Definitely,” Souness agreed.

“He doesn’t know where the ball is and he’s only interested in the Argentinian player. He doesn’t know when it’s been kicked, he’s not looking and I think that is a penalty for me.”

However, the argument kicked-off when Keane disagreed. “No no no,” Keane said. “All this will do is encourage diving. He’s [Paredes] dragging him [the defender] down.”

Souness wasn't having this opinion and said Keane wasn't listening to the argument. “This is a directive from referees this is not about opinion this is a fact. The guy wasn’t looking at the ball,” Souness said.

But Keane fired immediately back and said: “I heard exactly what she said… I’m here to give my opinion. That’s not a penalty.” After the fiery duo went back-and-forth, Souness let rip at Keane.

“I’ve heard you say it 10 times, let someone else speak. You’ll learn a lot more if you listen rather than talk all the time.”

The football world was enthralled with the argument between two historically fiery players and enjoyed the entertainment at half-time.

As Saudi Arabia returned from their half-time talk, they went on to produce on of the biggest upsets in World Cup history.

Saudi Arabia stun Argentina at FIFA World Cup

On his fifth quest for the only major trophy to elude him, Lionel Messi scored a 10th minute penalty in a dominant first-half display in which he and Lautaro Martinez also had three goals disallowed for offside. But Saudi Arabia, the second-lowest ranked team in the tournament after Ghana, threw caution to the wind at the start of the second half, charging at Argentina's defence in front of a frenzied 88,012 crowd.

Saleh Al-Shehri squeezed in a low shot in the 48th minute, before Salem Al-Dawsari curled in a scorching strike from the edge of the penalty area in the 53rd to leave Argentina and Messi looking utterly shell-shocked in the group C opener.

Despite plenty of possession after that, Argentina were unable to penetrate Saudi Arabia, who were competing in their sixth World Cup but had never previously won an opening game.

Argentina's loss revived old question marks over their defence and broke the team's amazing 36-match undefeated run - one short of the international record of 37 games unbeaten held by Italy. It also marred Messi's achievement of becoming the first Argentinian to score in four World Cups on his 20th appearance in the tournament. Only Maradona has played more games for Argentina at the World Cup, 21 in all.

with AAP

Click here to sign up to our newsletter for all the latest and breaking stories from Australia and around the world.