“Now that we are world champions, even more” - Lionel Messi says everyone wants to beat Argentina, expects tough World Cup qualifying campaign

Lionel Messi has made an interesting admission that everyone wants to beat Argentina after steering the Albiceleste to a hard-fought 1-0 win over Ecuador in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers on Thursday (September 8). The Inter Miami forward reckons Lionel Scaloni's men are the hunted in every game following their World Cup triumph last year.

Argentina have commenced their quest to secure qualification for the 2026 edition. They clashed with Ecuador at the Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti in what proved to be an intense encounter as both teams came all out to secure the win.

With the sides goalless till the 78th minute, Lionel Messi stepped up to decide the fate of the game, reminding the world just why he's considered the greatest in history. The Inter Miami forward found the back of the net with a sublime free-kick which sealed victory for Argentina.

After the game, the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner explained that games are only getting tougher for the reigning world champions as he praised the effort of the opposition team.

"It was shown in the two friendlies, and, today, by the points, that this group is not going to relax beyond what it achieved. It was historic, extraordinary," the playmaker told reporters, as quoted by GOAL.

He continued:

"We know that if we go down a little, they will pass us over. There are going to be tough matches like this. Defeats, surely. We have to be as we are now, with our feet on the ground. Fight every game as we have been fighting since Scaloni started with all this.

"We already knew it was going to be like this, especially because of the way the Qualifiers are. We knew that it is very difficult to win, that they are all very close matches."

Praising Ecuador, Messi continued:

"Ecuador is a great team. They have been showing since the last qualifiers that they have very good players, that they are physically strong, that they are clear about what they do, although they changed coaches, and now they are trying something else. What they do, they do very Well, we know what we had to do to get it going."

Lionel Messi went on to stress the importance of acknowledging that every team want to beat Argentina.

"Now that we are world champions, even more. That's why we can't go down. We even have to go up a little more than we were doing. The demand in each game is maximum and, surely more and more," he said.

---

Lionel Messi reached new milestones during Argentina versus Ecuador

Lionel Messi firing Argentina to World cup 2026

Lionel Messi added more records to his name with his amazing strike against Ecuador. First, the Argentine became the joint all-time scorer for South American teams in World Cup Qualifiers, going level with his former teammate Luis Suarez (29).

The seven-time Ballon d'Or winner also raised his career free-kick tally to 65, equaling David Beckham in fifth position among the greatest set-piece specialists of all time.

The Argentine is now behind Victor Legrotaglie and Ronaldinho who both have 66, Pele (70) and Juninho (77). He will look to add to that tally in La Albiceleste's next qualifier at Bolivia on Wednesday (September 12).