Outside the qualifying zone for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Argentina need a win against Ecuador’s opener on Tuesday, October 10, to maintain their hopes of qualifying. Starting at 8:30 p.m., like all games of the eighteenth (last) round of the South American qualifiers, the game takes place at the Atahualpa Olympic stadium in Quito.

Ecuador’s recent performance

The few chances that Ecuador, who came to lead the qualifiers in their first four rounds by reaching consecutive victories, were decimated on Thursday, October 5. Even made a tough game in Chile, but ended up losing by 2 to 1.
With that, the Ecuadorian national team remained stationed in the 20 points (six wins, two draws and nine defeats and has no chance of overcoming the Colombian team, fourth place and last in the zone of direct classification for the Russian World, which has 26 points, nor the Peru, who occupy the fifth place, that would give right to fight in the recapture with New Zealand, with 25 points.

The current form of Argentina

The Argentines made their last home game in the qualifiers on Thursday and again faced the same problem that has haunted them since the start of the dispute: lack of goals. After transferring the game against the Peruvian team for the cauldron of La Bombonera, the team pressed, had chances to score, but could not get the ball into the net.
With 16 goals in 17 matches, the Argentina team has the second worst attack of the qualifiers. It only made fewer goals than Bolivia (14), ninth place and out of the fight for places in the 2018 World Cup.
The tie with Peru 0-0 left the team in the sixth place on the leaderboard with 25 points (six wins, seven draws and four losses). Despite being out of the elite squad, he does not rely on other results to keep himself in contention for a place in the world. If he defeats Ecuador, he will guarantee, at least, the fifth position. With that, he would have the right to play the repechage.
This is due to the fact that the table marks a confrontation between Peru (25 points) and Colombia (26), who are ahead of Argentina. In this way, one of them would be overcome. To get the spotlight, however, the Argentineans need the Brazilian team not to lose to the Chilean or else Uruguay will be thrashed at home by Bolivia.
In the event of a draw or defeat of the Chilean team against Brazil in Sao Paulo, a victory would make Argentina win that position as well. The second possibility of climbing the table is much more difficult. In addition to the victory against Ecuador, the Argentines would need the Uruguayan defeat so that the teams equalize in points. However, Uruguay still has a big advantage in the goal balance (ten to one) that needs to be discounted.
Even the draw in Quito can guarantee the survival of Argentina. However, in this case, the Argentines would need the Colombians to defeat Peru and Paraguay, at home, not to overtake Venezuela.

History of the matches Ecuador vs Argentina
The Argentina team won 18 of the 33 matches played over the course of history against Ecuador, which won only five of them. The draws were recorded ten times. In the first round of the qualifiers for the World Cup of Russia, at home, the Argentineans were defeated by 2 to 0.