With a penalty goal by Enner Valencia, the Ecuadorian national team defeated Argentina 1-0 in the absence of its greatest exponent Lionel Messi, to ensure sub-leadership of the South American qualifiers and in the process break a winning drought of eight matches against the Albiceleste.

The Ecuadorian team decided to play the match in the port of Guayaquil to try to let the humidity work against the Argentines and in the end with a bit of intensity, the team led by Argentine Sebastian Beccacece, who took over from the Spaniard Felix Sanchez and apparently will continue with the Ecuadorians until 1930.

The winning goal was scored by Valencia in the 45+13 minute, at the moment in which the Ecuadorian national team took advantage of the pressure they exerted against an Argentine team that without Messi on the field lacked more rhythm to move the ball from one side to the other.

The locals intensely dominated the start of the match in Guayaquil, but did not manage to score until the first half of the injury time as a result of a very strong challenge by Nicolas Otamendi on Angel Precise inside the area to make way for the penalty that Valencia converted into a goal to say goodbye to the qualifiers in his career for the Ecuadorian striker.

The Ecuadorian victory broke a streak of eight games without winning against the Albiceleste with six defeats and two draws in the 42nd edition of these clashes at all levels and where Argentina has 24 wins to Ecuador's six and 12 draws.

Under this scenario it was evident that Argentina resented the absence of Lionel Messi due to muscle problems so that in this way the forward Enner Valencia with the winning goal could celebrate in style the Ecuadorian victory in his 100th match for the former Pachuca and Tigres striker of the UANL of the Liga MX.

The details

From the first minute, Ecuador launched into the attack with a dynamic and high-pressure game,taking advantage of the style of Nilson Angulo and Pedro Vite, launched by Moises Caicedo who set the pace until he was sent off the field.

Argentina, despite the defeat, finished first in the qualifiers and its performance was 70.3%, while Ecuador left behind a streak of four consecutive draws where the victory allowed the Ecuadorians to secure the runner-up spot in the qualifiers for a performance of 53.7 percent.

Meanwhile Argentina with Julian Alvarez and Franco Mastantuono on the field gave a different rhythm to the visiting team, who, however, could not find the goal in a match in which, with nothing to win or lose, the Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni finally did not risk Messi and gave the final direction to the game.