, as world champions, will begin their World Cup title defense at home against Ecuador on Thursday night. Ecuador also reached the final stage in Qatar and are hoping to make another World Cup appearance by virtue of automatic qualification in the top six of the South American rankings.
In the eyes of the Ecuadorian team, stopping Messi will be the most challenging task they face. They will have to develop a precise strategy against the current world champion. However, Argentina have been in excellent form in recent matches, including victories in all six of their World Cup matches last year and four friendlies since. In addition, they have won friendlies against, Curaçao, Australia and Indonesia with zero goals conceded, scoring 13 goals, which is not to be underestimated. The Argentinean Lionel Messi, who is still performing well at Inter Milan this summer, is still a sharp knife for the Argentinean team.
Ecuador have cruised through South American qualifiers in recent years, and although they are not a traditional South American powerhouse, they have qualified for four of the last six World Cups. However, they have often lost form once they have reached the main tournament. In the 2022 World Cup, they went out early after weakening against them in the group final round. They also have a very poor all-time record in, having been eliminated at the group stage in seven of their nine finals since 1999. In that time, they have won only three of the 30 matches played in the tournament.
Comparing the recent form of the two teams, Argentina undoubtedly has a stronger advantage. They have won all their recent matches, including World Cup matches and friendlies. Ecuador, on the other hand, has three wins and three losses in recent matches. Such a record makes Ecuador's match against Argentina a challenging one.
Although Ecuador has great players like Valencia and Estupinan, they are undoubtedly on the verge of a big battle against the mighty Argentina. Especially against Messi, they must have enough defense strategy.
Combining the previous records and the strength comparison between the two sides, the predicted result of this match is Argentina 3-0 Ecuador. Especially since Argentina is playing at home and has a strong squad to back them up, they are going all out and looking forward to an opening win. Ecuador, on the other hand, although they had won the game in Argentina in 2015, but that was also their only victory in Argentina, facing the world champions, they are undoubtedly the big hot second half.
