Highlights

Argentina got their World Cup qualifying campaign off to the perfect start on Thursday when Lionel Messi's early penalty gave them a 1-0 win over Ecuador in a lackluster match in Buenos Aires.

The Argentine FA piped fan noise around the empty Bombonera stadium and the chants of "Messi! Messi!" were vindicated as early as the 12th minute when he put Argentina ahead from the spot after Lucas Ocampos was fouled inside the penalty area.

Three England players scored their first international goals to give Gareth Southgate's experimental team a comfortable 3-0 win over Wales in a friendly at Wembley Stadium on Thursday.

In-form Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin opened the scoring in the 26th minute before second-half goals from Conor Coady and Danny Ings secured the win in the warm-up game for Nations League matches against Belgium and Denmark.

Norway’s fledgling golden generation — spearheaded by Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland and Real Madrid’s Martin Ødegaard — fell at the penultimate hurdle to Euro 2021 on Thursday, losing 2-1 to a deserving Serbia after extra time in the qualifying playoffs in Oslo.  

Norway hadn’t qualified for a major international tournament since Euro 2000 — whereas Serbia participated at the 2018 World Cup — but the home side entered this one full of hope after a qualifying cycle that included only one defeat (albeit five draws) in a group with Spain, Sweden and Romania. 

Francesco Caputo was thrilled to finally pull on an Italy shirt at the age 33 but there was also a tinge of regret at what might have been after a career spent largely in the lower divisions of Italian football.

The Sassuolo forward became Italy's second-oldest debutant when he started Wednesday's friendly against Moldova and needed only 23 minutes to score his first international goal in the 6-0 win.

Olivier Giroud became France's second top scorer when he netted a double to take his international tally to 42 goals as the world champions crushed an injury and COVID-19-ravaged Ukraine 7-1 in a friendly in a near-empty Stade de France on Wednesday.

Giroud, who celebrated winning his 100th cap, found the back of the net twice in the second half to move within nine goals of Thierry Henry's French scoring record. The Chelsea striker leapfrogged Michel Platini, who scored 41 goals from 72 games between 1976-87. 

Mexico has gone into the empty belly of the beast and defeated the Netherlands 1-0 at Johan Cruijff ArenA. The game’s only goal — a penalty converted by Raúl Jiménez — was fortunate in that Jiménez was offside before the foul that led to the spot kick, but Mexico’s play in defense, midfield and attack was superior to the Dutch’s over the course of 90 minutes in Amsterdam.

Here are my five key takeaways after watching Wednesday’s match on ESPN2.    

#1. Tecatito is fun as hell.