Key events
65 min: Argentina substitution Julian Alvarez replaces Lautaro Martinez, who couldn’t add to his four goals. He didn’t get the greatest service.
64 min “That foul on Caicedo,” says Joe Pearson. “Forget it, Jake. It’s Conmebol.”
It looked like something from English football in the 1980s.
63 min For a second it seemed the penalty would be retaken because Martinez was off his line. Replays showed he was fine, so Argentina are officially out of jail.
Valencia hits the post!
62 min Oh dear lord. He swaggered up nonchalantly, sent Martinez the wrong way – and then rolled the ball slowly against the left-hand post. Hincapie rattled the rebound into the side netting from a tight angle.
61 min Emi Martinez is acting up as usual, and why not. De Paul is still pleading his case but there’s no suggestion the decision will be overturned.
It was another left-wing corner, headed on at the near post, and it hit the hand of De Paul. Hmm, that looks a bit harsh: his arms looked pretty close to his body and he was only a couple of yards away from the player who flicked it on.
60 min: Penalty to Ecuador! This time the handball has been given!
56 min Romero, flustered by the presence of Valencia, concedes a needless corner. It’s flicked on and hits the arm of Fernandez, which leads to a VAR check for a possible penalty. Nothing to see, Fernandez’s arm was close enough to his body to satisfy the VAR folk. It wasn’t right by his side though.
55 min A hopeful shot on the turn from Lautaro Martinez dribbles wide.
54 min Caicedo is back on his feet. He’s limping but looks like he’s okay.
53 min Caicedo is still down. That was a nasty blow, and there are one or two VAR officials who would recommend a red card for Romero. Enner Valencia was making a VAR signal to the referee.
51 min Romero clears the ball and then studs Caicedo in the side of the leg in his follow through. With most players you’d assume it was an accident…
50 min A very slow start to the second half. Ecuador are having quite a lot of the ball, though it’s all in harmless areas for now.
48 min Messi has been relatively quiet, possibly because of the leg injury he has been managing, though he still played a gorgeous pass to Enzo Fernandez that ultimately led to the goal.
47 min “Since it is Independence Day here, and amateurs have way too much access to ordinance, the entire first half has been punctuated with bangs and flashes,” says Joe Pearson. “I mean the match has been OK, but c’mon.”
46 min Ecuador get the second half under way. No changes on either side.
Half-time reading
Half time: Argentina 1-0 Ecuador
The scoreline is no surprise, but it doesn’t tell the full story of an intriguing first half. Ecuador were the better team for much of it, with Emi Martinez making a fine save from Jeremy Sarmiento early on. Another Martinez, Manchester United’s Lisandro, headed Argentina in front from a well-worked corner in the 35th minute.
45 min “Scaloni needs to throw Lucas Martínez on so that Argentina can complete their hat-trick of goals by L’s Martínez,” says Kári Tulinius.
44 min Argentina have been much better since the goal, passing the ball with greater speed and purpose. De Paul is gratuitously shoved over from behind by Valencia, who has been booked and needs to be careful. He’s already been sent off once in this tournament.
41 min: Chance for Argentina! De Paul’s pass deflects towards Fernandez, who drags a left-foot cross shot well wide. That was Argentina’s best chance in open play.
39 min The goal is a bit harsh on Ecuador, who had been the better team until that point. But now they have to fight the inevitable fatalism that comes when you play well and go behind to a superpower.
37 min Five of Argentina’s six goals at this year’s Copa have been scored by an L Martinez: four for Lautaro and now one for Lisandro.
GOAL! Argentina 1-0 Ecuador (Lisandro Martinez 36)
Lisandro Martinez scores his first goal for Argentina! Messi’s clipped corner from the right was headed on deftly at the near post by Mac Allister, and Martinez arrived at the far post to nod in from close range. Dominguez pushed the ball away but he was well behind the line when he did so.
34 min Messi spins a terrific first-time pass into the path of Fernandez, galloping beyond the defence. He evades Preciado on the edge of the area and whacks a shot that deflects behind off Pacho.
31 min Alexander Dominguez, the Ecuador keeper, has had the square root of bugger all to do. I suppose this is in keeping with Argentina’s tournament; all their goals have been scored in the second half.
30 min Valencia takes his frustrations out on Mac Allister and is booked.
29 min Valencia is down again, this time holding his back. Romero eased a stiff arm into him as they competed for a high ball. It doesn’t look too bad.
27 min: Just wide from Fernandez! Better from Argentina. Messi finds the overlapping Molina, whose chipped cross is headed just wide by Fernandez, 15 yards out. It was a pretty good effort as he had to generate the power himself.
25 min The fact there is no safety net of extra-time will make Argentina nervous if this is still goalless at half-time. They’re not playing well at all.
22 min Messi’s cross reaches Gonzalez beyond the far post. He tries to find Lautaro Martinez with an early ball that is crucially cut out by Preciado.
Moments later, Valencia goes down after an unpleasant tackle from behind by Romero. He might have bene booked for that.
21 min The addition of Gruezo in midfield has worked well for Ecuador, who are giving Argentina very little space in the middle of the pitch.
19 min Attempts at goal so far: Argentina 0-4 Ecuador.
16 min Ecuador are causing Argentina all sorts of problems. Valencia makes a good run in behind and reverses a cross that is volleyed over from eight yards by Preciado. It came an awkward height but it was still a chance.
15 min: Excellent save by Martinez! Lovely football from Ecuador. Caicedo shows great feet on the left to beat Molina (I think) and screw a low cross into Sarmiento. He swerves beautifully past Romero and stabs a close-range shot that is saved with his legs by Martinez. The follow-up is blasted just over the bar from the edge of the area by Paez.
14 min It hasn’t been a great start from Argentina – sloppy at times, frantic at others. Ecuador will be much happier with the first 15 minutes. Okay the first 14.
11 min Hincapie wins the first corner for Ecuador, who are starting to look good in transition. It’s taken short to Caicedo, whose cross is headed away.
10 min A reminder that there’s no extra time tonight. If Ecuador can keep this goalless for 90 minutes, and that’s the plan, there will be a penalty competition.
6 min: Chance for Ecuador! Out of nothing, the first opportunity comes for Ecuador. Caicedo makes an excellently timed run beyond the Argentina defence, onto a header from Valencia. By the time he reaches the penalty area he is under pressure from behind and shoots tamely at Martinez.
4 min “I hope you got to see Messi live, Rob,” says Ruth Purdue. “I didn’t realise how fast he was dribbling till I saw him live. It’s like watch tennis iive, you don’t realise how hard they hit it till you’re in the stadium. Those videos of him made a lot more sense.”
Cricket is great for that; you barely see the ball when somebody like Mark Wood wangs it down.
3 min Fernandez stabs a promising pass towards Lautaro Martinez, forcing Preciado to come across and sweep up on the edge of the area. Argentina have had all of the ball in the first few minutes.
3 min There hasn’t been a goal at either end in the first half of Argentina’s games, so don’t be surprised if this takes a little while to get going.
2 min “In the local pickup soccer group I play in, players bring a white shirt and a dark shirt to facilitate the forming of teams,” writes Peter Oh. “Striped shirts are discouraged, but I’ve noticed that Argentina fans have a creative solution. Show up in the albiceleste shirt for the warm-up, and then turn it inside out to line up for the white team at kickoff.
“Inside Out Argentina. Still looks great (you can see a hint of the famous sky blue), and evokes images of Pixar. Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust. In other words, Football!!!
“Btw, what do you call ‘pickup soccer’ over there?”
Erm, pickup football?
1 min Peep peep! Argentina kick off from right to left as we watch. Ecuador are in their very very very very very very very dark blue change strip.
It’s time for the action. The exit polls are all predicting a big Argentina win; we’ll soon find out.
The quarter-final line-up
Since you asked, I’m all in on Venezuela.
“Jesus, Rob!” says Joe Pearson. “Are you an insomniac? I always expect the late night stuff to be Beau Dure, since he’s on this side of the ocean. How on earth did you draw this straw?”
It’s a mildly important night over here, so I was going to be up anyway.
Team news
Argentina make eight changes, restoring all the first-choice players who were rested for the final group game against Peru. The in-form Lautaro Martinez starts up front with Lionel Messi.
Ecuador make one change from their goalless draw with Mexico: the defensive midfielder Carlos Gruezo replaces the forward Kevin Rodriguez.
Argentina (4-4-2) E Martinez; Molina, Romero, Lisandro Martinez, Tagliafico; De Paul, Mac Allister, Fernandez, Gonzalez; Messi, Lautaro Martinez.
Subs: Armani, Rulli, Otamendi, Pezzella, Acuna, Lucas Martinez, Montiel, Di Maria, Paredes, Rodriguez, Lo Celso, Palacios, Carboni, Alvarez, Garnacho.
Ecuador (4-3-2-1) Dominguez; Preciado, Torres, Pacho, Hincapie; Franco, Gruezo Caicedo; Paez, Sarmiento; Valencia.
Subs: Galindez, Ramirez, Porozo, Hurtado, Loor, Ordonez, Micolta, Mena, Corozo, Cifuentes, Yeboah, Ortiz, Minda, Jordy Caicedo, Rodriguez.
Hello, good evening and welcome to live coverage of the first quarter-final at the Copa América 2024: the holders, favourites and world champions Argentina v Ecuador. It feels like a foregone conclusion – but then so did all the thousands of shock results that are dotted throughout football history, from Belo Horizonte 1950 to Manizales 2001. That’s why we keep coming back.
Rob will be here shortly. In the meantime, here are our power rankings from the tournament so far:
1) Argentina
Winners of all three group stage games, Argentina cruised to the top of Group A over Canada, Chile, and Peru.
They trotted to wins with Lionel Messi in the lineup. But, crucially, they looked dominant without him in their final group match, which he missed through injury. Messi has returned to full training and seems likely to play in the quarters. If not, they could do a whole lot worse than sliding Alejandro Garnacho into the team.
In Messi’s absence, Lautaro Martínez has caught fire. After starting the tournament on the subs bench, Martínez has pushed his way into the starting lineup, scoring four times in three games – including two from the bench.
Moving back a line, Argentina’s midfield is ready to beat you – and they want to shove it in your face. “What I do is pick an enemy,” midfield general Rodrigo De Paul told Telemundo. “Well, let’s say a rival because that doesn’t sound so bad. I look to engage in a dispute that will keep me alert. It’s not just that I want to win. I want to beat you. I make it personal.”
Best of luck to Argentina’s opponents in the knockouts. They’ll need it.
6) Ecuador
Ecuador cut it really, really close. If not for a (correctly) reversed penalty call in their final group stage match against Mexico, there was a real chance they were going to be watching the rest of this tournament from home. But the call was reversed, they picked up a much-needed point, and now they’re in the quarter-finals.
They’ll regret their early collapse against Venezuela when it comes time to play Argentina in the next round instead of the runner-up from Group A. It’s probably one tournament cycle too early for teenage star Kendry Páez to give them a real chance against Argentina, but never say never.
You can read the rest of the rankings here: