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Fresh off their convincing 2-2 draw with Germany in Dortmund, Argentina will face off with Ecuador in a friendly fixture on Sunday.
Team captain and talisman Lionel Messi is still serving out his three-month ban for comments of bias levelled against CONMEBOL at the last Copa America, but even in the absence of the ban, it is unlikely that he would have been called up.
Lionel Scaloni has been rebuilding for the future of the Argentine team and he kept in line with this for his team's latest friendlies, w ith the core of the squad being youngsters who are untested at senior level.
They would come up against an Ecuador side who responded to their group stage elimination at the Copa America by posting consecutive victories against fellow South American nations Peru and Bolivia in September.
Head-to-Head record
Argentina and Ecuador are both members of the South American football confederation (CONMEBOL), so it comes as no surprise that they have been regular foes over the years.
CONMEBOL's round-robin system for World Cup qualification ensures that there are guaranteed to be at least a fixture every other year, while there have also been occasional clashes in the Copa America.
In total, both teams have faced off 34 times, with the last coming in October 2017 during qualification for the 2018 World Cup and Messi was the star of the show as he scored a hat-trick to complete a 3-1 comeback victory.
Argentina have the upper hand with 19 wins. Furthermore, they have scored 85 goals and conceded just 33 in matches between the pair.
Total matches played: 34
Ecuador wins: 10
Draws: 5
Argentina wins: 19
Kickoff details
Date: Sunday, 13 September 2019
Time: 4:00 pm CEST (Local time), 7:00 am (PDT), 8:00 am (MT), 9:00 am (CT), 10:00 am (ET)
Venue: Estadio Martínez Valero, Valencia
Where to watch and Livestream in the United States
For fans in the United States, the game between Ecuador and Argentina can be watched on the following stations: beIN SPORTS CONNECT, beIN SPORTS, Fanatiz USA, beIN SPORTS en Español.
Furthermore, the game can be streamed at no cost by Bet365 customers provided that they have a funded account and/or have placed a bet in the preceding 24 hours.
