With the game still goalless, the City striker was summoned on by Argentine manager Lionel Scaloni with 13 minutes left, replacing Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez.
And within 60 seconds, a resulting free-kick saw Argentine skipper Lionel Messi fire home a superb left foot free-kick to break the deadlock and get the holders’ South American qualifying campaign off to the perfect start in front of more than 80,000 fans at the Monumental Stadium.
Prior to that it had proved a frustrating evening for the 2022 world champions with Ecuador proving redoubtable and dogged opponents in spite of Argentina’s domination of possession and territory.
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But, as so often in the past, Inter Miami star Messi summoned up the key moment when it matters.
It was the eighth consecutive game in which Messi had scored for Argentina and also took his tally of CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying goals to 29, drawing him level at the top of the all-time list with Luis Suarez of Uruguay.
The result also extended Argentina’s unbeaten streak in World Cup qualifying to 22 games, with their last loss coming against Bolivia in 2017 - the team they face on Tuesday in their next South American qualifier.
