Chidi Samuel || Lionel Messi put up a monstrous performance on Tuesday to practically drag Argentina into the World cup finals in Russia scheduled for 2018 with a 3-1 victory over Ecuador.
The Barcelona man was at his imperial best as he netted a famous hat-trick at Ecuador’s National Stadium, Quito.
The fact that Argentina has to deal with playing at 9,000-feet altitude, knowing they’ve only won once there since 1960 meant nothing to the little magician as he took the destiny of an entire nation in his hands.
The night started badly for Argentina when the host took the lead 40 seconds into the match when Otamendi failed to deal with a long ball and it breaks into the path of Ibarra, who sprints down the channel and reverses a shot past Romero. It was quite an unbelievable start.
But in the 12th minute, Messi drove forward in midfield and whips a ball out to Di Maria, the two combined to devastating effect. Di Maria gives it back to Messi and from 12 yards he pokes it past the goalkeeper.
Messi struck again in the 20th minute when a poor defensive pass was seized upon by him to finish cooly into the roof of the net.
The Argentine legend completed his hat -trick for the night when he sprinted at the heart of the Ecuador defence to lift a wonderful effort over the goalkeeper and into the net.
The result means that Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Colombia are going to Russia automatically from South America