Argentina v Ecuador, 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers: Cometh the hour, cometh the Messiah

It was a must-win situation for Argentina and we all know how the team is heavily dependent on Lionel Messi despite being blessed with some outstanding attacking players. Incredibly, no Argentina player other than Messi has scored a goal in a competitive game since 15 November 2016 - that was six matches ago. Messi knows this very well and thus, decided to unleash his true colours when it mattered the most.

With Argentina's Russia hopes in a critical condition after last week's dour 0-0 draw against Peru, Messi scored a stunning hat-trick as Jorge Sampaoli's men fought from behind to see off Ecuador 3-1.

Argentina had entered the match outside the qualification spots in South America's notoriously tough 10-team qualifying group. And within 45 seconds their hopes looked all but over, as Romario Ibarra gave Ecuador - who had no qualification hopes - the lead.

Yet two goals in eight minutes from Messi put Argentina in front; his first came after excellent interplay with Angel Di Maria, before he pounced on some lackadaisical play in the home defence and ruthlessly fired into the roof of the net.

Argentina weren't at their best, unable to control possession or the shape of the game as they would have liked. But it hardly mattered as the five-time Ballon d'Or winner showed his class with a magnificent third, skinning a defender before a sublime finish past Maximo Banguera.

Substitute Mauro Icardi should have made it 4-1 at the death, but was denied by Banguera, but this was the night when Argentina's greatest goalscorer became perhaps their greatest ever player.

So, Argentina will feature in next year’s World Cup and had Messi not played the role of a life-saver, we all might have missed one of the exciting sides of world football. Thankfully, they have boarded the ship to Russia and as a Brazilian fan, I wish them all the best in FIFA World Cup. But I just want to say, they still need to work harder on their grey areas and dependency on Messi won’t help them enough in the mega event.

Thank You

Faisal Caesar