Argentina vs Ecuador prediction: WORLD: Friendly International betting tips on match 2024-06-09 23:00.
[p]Argentina will look to extend their unbeaten H2H record against Ecuador to seven games (W5, D1) when the sides meet for the sixth straight year this Sunday evening in Chicago. This match comes 11 days before the 2022 FIFA World Cup winners begin the defence of their 2021 Copa América crown, with the mission this summer being to keep hold of both trophies simultaneously for a further two years.[/p]
[p]After seeing their 14-match winning run end last November, Lionel Scaloni’s side have responded with back-to-back victories over Brazil (1-0) and El Salvador (3-0) before most recently triumphing 3-1 over Costa Rica in March. Ranked number one in the world, the Albiceleste once again have Lionel Messi at their disposal, with defender Lisandro MartĂnez telling the press earlier this week that the squad aren’t viewing this upcoming tournament as  their captain’s final one for his country.[/p]
[p]After this encounter, Ecuador still have two more friendlies against Bolivia and Honduras to play before their 2024 Copa AmĂ©rica opener versus Venezuela on June 22nd in Santa Clara. Ranked 31st in the world – their highest position since 2017 – and drawn in a group alongside Venezuela, Jamaica and Mexico, hopes are high that a third quarter-final appearance in the last four Copas could be on the cards.[/p]
[p]La Tri saw their six-game unbeaten streak (W4, D2), which interestingly began after a 1-0 loss to Argentina last September, come to an end in their last fixture when they went down 2-0 to Italy. But overall, they have impressed since Félix Sánchez took over as head coach in March 2023, and if he can increase his win ratio of 58.3% in the job during this match, then expectations of a successful summer in the USA will really start to grow.[/p]
[p]Key battle: Messi has contributed to ten goals (G7, A3) in his seven previous H2Hs, including opening the scoring in two of the last four and hitting a hat-trick in Argentina’s 3-1 win in 2017. Standing in his way is likely to be goalkeeper Alexander DomĂnguez, who was on the bench for the friendly against Italy, but is targeting his fourth successive international clean sheet.[/p]
[p]Hot stat: There have been only five goals in total across Ecuador’s last five games.[/p]