#足球创作盛宴#美洲杯四分之一决赛北京时间7月5日上午拉开战幕. Defending champions Argentina were solid in the group stage, becoming the only team to concede a goal in the group stage and securely locked up top of the group. Ecuador, on the other hand, drew 0-0 with Mexico in the final round of the group stage, and finally won the second place in the group by virtue of goal difference. In this year's Copa America, only one North American team, Panama, advanced to the knockout round, reflecting the huge gap in the level of football between the North and the South.
Lautaro has regained the trust of the manager
After winning the last Copa America and the World Cup in a row, Argentina's players no longer need to prove themselves in any games, so they are looking for consistency. In the opening game of the group stage, coach Scaloni fielded a formation close to the traditional 4-4-2, but it did not work well. Generally, the 4-4-2 formation is a high and fast striker combination, but Scaloni let Alvarez and Messi, two partners who are barely 1.7 meters in shoes, although Messi is mainly organized, and the attack efficiency is still not high.
On the contrary, Lautaro, who has frequently wasted chances in the World Cup, has continued to build up miracles in less than 20 minutes of coming off the bench. Especially in the second game against Chile, Messi and Alvarez were at a loss in the face of the opponent's iron bucket formation, and Lautaro came off the bench to kill the opponent in the 88th minute, and then helped Argentina lock up the qualification in advance.
Messi's task remains to organise the attack
In the third game, Messi had to rest, and Lautaro was in excellent form, Scaloni finally decided to let the Inter Milan striker play the role of starting center forward, and as a result, he lived up to his mission and scored two goals for the team, which also means that he scored in this Copa America and accounted for 80% of Argentina's goals, and naturally led the scorer list. Coach Scaloni is very happy now, they have been very fond of Lautaro, and he has been hated to start the game from the bench, and it is presumable that Lautaro will always start with Messi after that.
Ecuador and South American hometown Venezuela teamed up to send home two North and Central American teams. Of course, the two teams were not so friendly when they fought the South American Civil War. Ecuador took the initiative from the start, but a red card from veteran Valencia in the 22nd minute turned the game around. At that time, he didn't kick the ball in front of the goal, but kicked directly on the chin of the opponent's central defender Osorio, although it was not intentional, but because the damage was too great and the action was too reckless, he was still sent off by Zhihong.
Valencia took the opponent's head as the ball
As Ecuador's all-time top scorer, Valencia's recklessness is incredible. Venezuela played well in the South American World Qualifiers, and if there is still a numerical advantage, it is normal for Ecuador to be unable to parry. After that, Valencia was banned, but fortunately, the Ecuadorian team shared the burden of attack, defeating Jamaica 3-1 and fighting for the initiative to qualify.
Even if they get a straight red in the Copa America, they are only suspended for one game, so Valencia was able to return in the crucial final group game against Mexico, but Ecuador needed to defend at this time, and they did it, and finally drew 0-0 with the team that won the most CONCACAF gold cup titles in a passive situation at full-time, and advanced to the knockout stage in a thrilling way.
Ecuador gasses away Mexico
Argentina have dominated Ecuador in recent years and have already beaten them at home in the 2026 World Qualifiers, but Ecuador also struggled the defending champions in that game. Now that the world champions don't have home advantage, I'm afraid there is not much they can do with Ecuador's resilience, and the two sides may not be able to make a difference in regulation time, and if it goes to extra time or a penalty, the depth of the defending champions' bench should allow them to win.