A nation exploded with relief on Tuesday as Lionel Messi single-handedly dragged his Argentina team into next year's World Cup finals with a spellbinding hat-trick in Quito.

"Messi is E.T. He's from another planet. He's not from this world," Marco Mouras, a 28-year-old Brazilian said in a crowded Buenos Aires bar as Argentinians around him went wild, beer and pizza spilling onto the floor.

Messi gave the world a masterclass of what it would be missing if he didn't go to Russia 2018, a distinct possibility when Argentina went a goal down inside the first minute of a match they had to win.

A graveyard silence descended on bars, restaurants and homes when Ecuador's Romario Ibarra struck in the first minute of the game, casting a pall of gloom across Argentina as he scored.

It was proof for the doomsayers that this team was a lost cause. Argentinians had suffered too much during a lacklustre qualification series and this was the last straw.