Argentina suffered a 1-0 defeat to Ecuador in the final round of South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, after Nicolas Otamendi's dismissal and a goal conceded. Scaloni acknowledged the challenges of finding players of the same caliber as Messi and Di Maria to maintain the team's quality, but stressed the need to maintain faith.

In the 30th minute, Enner Valencia received a long pass from his teammate and was brought down by Otamendi while attacking. The referee showed Otamendi a red card and Argentina could only continue to fight with 10 players.

In the first half of injury time, Preciado was knocked down by Tagliafico while competing for the ball, and the referee awarded Ecuador a penalty kick. Enner Valencia then scored from the penalty spot to give Ecuador a 1-0 lead.

In the 50th minute of the second half, Caicedo brought down Nicolas Gonzalez while fighting for the ball. Caicedo was sent off with yellow cards, and Ecuador was also left with 10 players.

In the end, Argentina lost to Ecuador 0-1, but still advanced to the World Cup finals as the first place.

It is worth mentioning that it is still unknown whether Messi, the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner, will play for Argentina in the World Cup finals, and Di Maria has retired from the national team, so whether Argentina can maintain its strong strength has also attracted great attention.

Argentina coach Scaloni said in an interview, "Those players who have left or will leave the national team have extraordinary qualities. What we have to do is to find players who can keep the team at a high level."

"Of course it will be difficult to find players of this level, but our goal is to continue believing in the beliefs that have brought us to this point, knowing that there will always be opponents who can beat us in football."

Scaloni also said, "When the opponent plays well, we have to learn to bear it. We suffered in some stages, especially when we were one man short. The red card disrupted the rhythm of the game and we didn't create many scoring opportunities. But I still remain positive because the team tried hard to perform and showed their way of playing, and the opponent is indeed very strong."

"I think the second half was ours. We could have done better but we didn't. Luckily, we're used to winning but sometimes we have moments that don't go our way. Ecuador are a good team and they made it difficult for us."

In addition, Scaloni added, "After Caicedo was sent off, I thought the team showed a different side in the second half, which is very positive. We must keep moving forward, and we can't always win the game."