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With less than three years to go until the 2026 World Cup finals, South America became the first continent to launch World Cup qualifiers. Starting in September this year, the countries of South America will face a fierce competition that will last for a whole year, until September 2025. This year's South American qualifiers were expanded to 48 teams due to the World Cup, and the number of qualifying places in the South American zone has increased from 4.5 to 6.5, and for the former football giants Brazil and Argentina, the World Qualifiers seem to have lost their sense of urgency and become a showcased game.
Argentina's first World Cup match will be held on September 8 at 8 a.m. Beijing time, and they will host Ecuador in a match that will officially kick off the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
Last December, Messi led Argentina to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the second time they have lifted the Hercules Cup in 36 years and the third time in the team's history. For Messi, it means that he has achieved the most important goal of his football career and officially crowned him the king of world football.
The next World Qualifiers and World Cup will be a football journey for Messi.
Since winning the World Cup, Argentina have played four friendly matches, beating Panama, Curacao, Australia and Indonesia, and their first World Qualifier match has attracted attention, with more than 70,000 fans flocking to watch and tickets sold out early.
Argentina's roster still retains a core World Cup winning squad, including two veterans of Lionel Messi and Di Maria, who have returned and prepared for the World Qualifiers at home to Ecuador.
Ecuador, a strong team in South America, stopped the group stage at the World Cup in Qatar, but now their chances of qualifying have increased as the number of South American spots has increased to six. Even away from home, Ecuador is hoping to get valuable points from Argentina.
This is Messi's sixth World Qualifier appearance, and he has already scored 27 goals in this competition, just one goal away from equalling the all-time top scorer in the South American World Qualifiers, Uruguayan striker Suarez. Messi only needs one goal against Ecuador to tie with Suarez and, if he can score twice, will be the top scorer in the South American World Qualifiers.
In addition, Messi has scored 103 goals in the games he played for the Argentina national team, setting his own record for the number of goals scored by the South American national team, and continuing to be at the top of the world football goalscorer list. At the same time, he is also the only player to win the World Cup after 100 goals for the national team.
Given that Messi has recently played 11 games for Internacional Miami and his fitness is close to the limit, there is still uncertainty as to whether Scaloni boss will start him.