Argentina took the sole lead of the South American World Cup qualifying group as Lionel Messi inspired them to a comfortable 4-0 win over Ecuador last weekend.

Sergio Aguero, Gonzalo Higuain, Messi and Angel Di Maria scored a goal apiece, but it was the Barcelona man, often a source of frustration to Argentina fans, who took the applause of the home crowd in Buenos Aires.

Argentina controlled the opening exchanges with Ecuador defending deep and using two or three players to keep Messi in check.

But Messi found space to test keeper Alexander Dominguez with a volley after good work from Fernando Gago and Aguero.

Ecuador responded with a counter-attack as they capitalised on Pablo Zabaleta’s slip, but Christian Suarez shot weakly and was denied by Sergio Romero.

Di Maria chipped the ball over the Ecuadorian defence after 20 minutes and Aguero scored with a cross-shot on his 24th birthday.

Then Messi began his masterclass.

First, he beat three defenders and set up Higuain, whose classy finish beat Dominguez.

Then, he ran 35 yards before passing to Higuain, who returned the ball with his first touch for Messi to guide home his 23rd goal for Argentina.

In the second half, Argentina were happy to sit back and hit Ecuador on the counter, with Messi bringing a great stop-out of Dominguez on one such attack.

Fifteen minutes before the end, Messi rubbed the lamp again with a magical run.

He left four Ecuadorians behind and shot, but the ball hit Jayro Campos. Substitute Jose Sosa grabbed the rebound and passed to Di Maria, who volleyed home to round off the scoring.

Captain Messi said: “We’ve always searched for the connection with the fans. It was a hard game, but we came through it well.

“Now we have to use every game to improve as a team.”

The win put Argentina top of the table with 10 points from five games, one more than Chile and two ahead of Uruguay and Venezuela.

In another match, an 84th-minute strike by Salomon Rondon silenced the Centenario Stadium and gave Venezuela a 1-1 draw in Uruguay.

It was a disappointing performance from the Copa America champions as they were way off their best.

Six minutes before half-time, Benfica’s Maximiliano Pereira escaped down the right and crossed the ball to Diego Forlan, who controlled and opened the scoring with a left-foot shot.

Meanwhile, in La Paz, Chile recorded a valuable 2-0 away victory over rock-bottom Bolivia.

Colo Colo midfielder Charles Aranguiz took advantage of a defensive mistake to open the scoring just before half-time.

Chile started to control the game in the second half thanks to Barcelona forward Alexis Sanchez who was the subject of a hard tackle from Luis Gutierrez which earned the midfielder a red card.

And seven minutes from time, a good individual goal by Arturo Vidal, of Juventus, sealed the match.

Standings