Argentina vs Ecuador Prediction: The Argentine national team will be able to win

In the opening round of qualification for the 2026 World Cup, Argentina will host Ecuador. The Argentines are quoted as big favorites of the pair, not only Messi's team is the host of the field, let's not forget who won the last World Cup in Qatar. So everything is logical.

After their victory over France in the 2022 World Cup final, Argentina has played four friendlies and won them all. They won 2:0 over Panama, Australia, and Indonesia and 7:0 over Curacao. In general, the series without defeats of Argentina lasts for ten consecutive matches. The last defeat was recorded in the first round of the group part of the World Cup 2022 from the national team of Saudi Arabia with a score of 1:2. By and large, after the triumph in Qatar, Argentina's squad has not changed much, and why change anything, if the national team has won everything it could in recent times.

Ecuadorians also became participants in the last Mundial. Still, they did it very successfully, taking only third place in Group A, losing to the Dutch and the national team of Senegal, beating the national team of Qatar. This failure cost the coach a place. Since March 11, 2023, the national team has been headed by Felix Sanchez, a 47-year-old Spaniard who previously worked as head coach of the national team of Qatar, Ecuador's former rival in the group of the World Cup-2022. Under the new coach, Ecuador has played four friendly matches. First, Ecuador lost 1:3 to Australia and then achieved three consecutive victories over the same Australia four days later, 2:1, Bolivia 1:0, and Costa Rica 3:1. The Ecuadorian national team is noticeably inferior to its future opponent. Still, we should not forget that Sanchez has several players of very high level under his arm, such as Estupiñan, Caicedo, Cifuentes, and Pacho.

On one hand, Argentina has one of the best defenses in the world. On the other hand, Argentina has one of the best attacks in the world, and the national team of Ecuador, the participant of the last Mundial, is not such a weak squad. There are several very strong performers, including in the offensive line. It should be noted that under the new coach, the Ecuadorian national team scored in every match, scoring three times in the last friendly against Costa Rica. So we won't be surprised if Argentina's 4-match streak without conceding a goal is broken on Friday. In general, we do not doubt that Argentina will be able to win the upcoming game. Ecuador is a comfortable opponent for the reigning world champions. Argentina has beaten Ecuador in four out of five matches.