According to Goal.com, Argentina's 3-1 triumph over Ecuador that sealed qualification was tense, scrappy, and more than a bit fortunate. But ultimately their magnificent captain put in the display 43 million people were waiting for to drag them kicking and screaming into the 2018 World Cup. With another result it may even have proved Leo's final game with the national team – it would at least have been difficult to imagine him soldiering on for another five years for another crack at the apple in Qatar.
The result itself was anything but a foregone conclusion. Aficionados of ominous statistics oft repeated in the build-up to the game that Argentina had won just once in the heights of Quito, the altitude of the Ecuadorian capital proving a daunting barrier to success over the years. And only a win would guarantee the Albiceleste at least a spot in the play-off, with automatic qualification out of their hands and depending on results elsewhere on a frenetic night of South American action.
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