Argentina against Ecuador – Match Thread

17

It’s nearly time for Argentina against Ecuador in the South American World Cup Qualifiers.

Everyone knows the story by now. Argentina’s backs are against the wall. A win and they are guaranteed of a playoff spot with a chance of even going as high as third place. A draw or a loss and it gets much more difficult. There remains one doubt in the starting eleven with Jorge SAMPAOLI not yet fully decision between SALVIO and RIGONI (although it does look like Eduardo SALVIO will get the start). Here’s the starting eleven:

Argentina against Ecuador starting eleven:
ROMERO; OTAMENDI, MASCHERANO, MERCADO; ACUNA, BIGLIA, PEREZ, SALVIO; DI MARIA, BENEDETTO, MESSI

Argentina Ecuador Eleven
Argentina’s starting eleven for the match

Ecuador’s manager Jorge CÉLICO will be banned from the sideline after a verbal altercation with Chile’s VIDAL when the two teams played each other.

17 Comments

  1. I heard Ecuador’s head coach will be suspended during this match. Based on his comments yesterday, Ecuador will play an open game against us. I also have a strong feeling that we will have an easy game today – FIFA surely will help us, probably an early penalty.

  2. Ronaldo and his teammates are celebrating for qualifying the World Cup. I thought Switzerland will keep Portugal at bay, but they are way weaker than I expected. A few hours later Messi & Co will celebrate too in Quito. VAMOS ARGENTINA!!!

  3. Anuparno, Messi always plays average in crunch games. You also claim it is a act…give me three instances…I think most people will argue this is a mere opinion.

    • 3 finals world cup semifinal copa final in 2007 even with better players surrounding in Barcelona he sometimes off color in some tough games like semifinals against Chelsea away against psg last year away against juve last year away against ac Milan in 2014 home and away against bayern in 2013 quarter against Germany in 2010 to name a few

    • Actually I’m a die hard messi fan and supports Argentina and barca only for messi but those matches hurt me a lot if Argentina qualifies sampaoli needs to create a system where if messi is neutrealized then 2-3 players should be there who can create and score otherwise again final defeat will haunt us

  4. I have a feeling…A STRONG FEELING.. that Sampaoli has a surprise master plan. Trump Cards. The reason why he picked Bendetto. This is the Altitude plus raining. Remember 2009 Maradona Belly Dive in the rain? Remember Palermo? When all the players gets tired after 60/65 mins including Ecuador. 2 fresh legs might come in (Icardi/Dybala) And one of them would do a Palermo.
    InshaAllah
    Vamos Albiceleste

  5. i dont believe in messi he always plays average in crunch games but equador defense may help him but he cant perform in pressure its a fact need others to contribute

    • Lol

      He always performs well in big matches although he has not got much success with Argentina in big matches.

      But there are two reasons. With Argentina, the opposition teams know if they man mark Messi or double mark him, there is a good chance of stopping Argentina. Messi can only become a provider in such situations and that unfortunately didn’t provide the best results due to some uncharacteristic poor finishing from his team mates.

      I also agree that we can’t see Messi at his best in Argentina shirt. In most of the matches. It seems the pressure is too high. To make things worse his team mates have not synced well with him latest being Dybala who admitted publicly. In his case, he was too similar to Messi, but still he should have made some compromise and tried to fit himself somewhere he can complement Messi.

      An in form Messi – Dybala partnership would be terrific and it could be the most fearsome attacking due among national teams.

  6. whatever the weather altitude u have to win no matter what u have to score atleast 2 goals i dont think equador can score more than 1 to be frank so score 2 u will win play it slow and control the match u cant be fast in altitude

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