In the end, who else but Lionel Messi scored the only goal of the game from a 78th-minute free kick.
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World Champions Argentina had to grind out a narrow 1-0 win over Ecuador in their opening 2026 World Cup qualifier. There was very little to separate the two teams during the game. In the end, who else but Lionel Messi scored the only goal of the game from a 78th-minute free kick. He yet again stepped up when his country needed him the most – just like the recent World Cup. In Qatar 2022, Messi played a starring role to help Argentina lift the coveted trophy.
It was not a surprise to see Lionel Messi getting the team over the line once again for his country. He has time and again produced the goods for Argentina at the international stage and was called to do so on Thursday night as well. After scoring the winner in the game, Messi spoke about what he made about the victory. “It was shown in the two friendlies and today, by the points, that this group is not going to relax beyond what it achieved. It was historic, extraordinary,” Messi, quoted by GOAL, said after the match.
He added: “We know that if we go down a little they will pass us over. There are going to be tough matches like this. Defeats, surely. We have to be as we are now, with our feet on the ground. Fight every game as we have been fighting since Scaloni started with All this. We already knew it was going to be like this, especially because of the way the Qualifiers are. We knew that it is very difficult to win, that they are all very close matches.”
Messi then gave credit to his opponents on the night and spoke about how difficult it was to play them. “Ecuador is a great team. They have been showing since the last Qualifiers that they have very good players, that they are physically strong, that they are clear about what they do, although they changed coaches and now they are trying something else. What they do, they do very well, we know what we had to do to get it going,” he elaborated.
The Inter Miami forward also spoke about how every side would be eager to beat them since they have won the World Cup. “Now that we are world champions, even more. That’s why we can’t go down. We even have to go up a little more than we were doing. The demand in each game is maximum and, surely more and more,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Argentina head coach Lionel Scaloni spoke about his time with the national team and how he is happy with the team’s performance against Ecuador. “When I started, I didn’t know that I was going to be there for five years, exactly. It seems like it was recently, there were difficult moments and, if you remember that, you realize that time has passed. You go improving with experience and matches. I’m proud of the match that the boys played, it was incredible. It was played to the limit as a Qualifying match has to be played,” he added.
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