After seven months away from football whilst recovering from heart surgery one might have excused Ángel Correa for needing a little time to get back up to speed. However, the 19-year-old, Atlético Madrid forward gave a 55 minute reminder of just why San Lorenzo were so impressive during the first half of 2014 and why Diego Simeone brought him to Spain. A devastating first half display of attacking football gave Argentina an unassailable lead over Ecuador and when captain Correa was withdrawn 10 minutes into the second half he had already scored one and made another three.

Humberto Grondona lined up in a 3-4-3 or perhaps 3-3-2-2 formation with Correa buzzing behind Giovani Simeone and Cristian Espinoza and it did not take long for Argentina’s attack to stamp their dominance over Ecuador’s creaking defence. After a couple of near chances the opening goal came from a marauding run out of defence from Emanuel Mammana. When the ball went out left to Correa his delightfully weighted ball across goal left Giovani Simeone with the simplest of tap ins.

After 20 minutes the lead was doubled when Correa pounced on a fumble by Edisson Recalde in the Ecuador goal and fired into the open net. After seven months out with his career hanging in the balance it was a huge relief to see Ángel Correa on the scoresheet once more.

However, the blot on an otherwise impressive opener was the carelessness that Argentina exhibited at times defensively. Minutes after taking a two-goal advantage, Mammana’s pass to Lucio Compagnucci put him under a little pressure and the Vélez youngster failed to act fast enough. Jose Cevallos nicked the ball from him and strode towards the edge of the penalty area, skipping away from Mammana’s desperate lunge before smashing the ball past Augusto Batalla. If Argentina are to beat the better teams in this competition these errors must be eradicated.

The lead was reestablised shortly after when River youngster, Tomás Martínez scored the goal of the match from 25 yards with a wonderfully struck left footed shot and the first half action did not end there. Lanús defender, Facundo Monteseirín tapped in from close range after Ecuador had failed to clear a corner and just before the break, Correa once more laid a goal on a plate for Simone.

As perhaps expected with such a wide margin at half time, the second time was very underwhelming with Argentina coasting. Cevallos pulled a goal back from the penalty spot to narrow the deficit but the contest was already over.

There will be much sterner tests for Argentina in Uruguay and Grondona will certainly want to stamp out some of the negligence that his defence exhibited.

Argentina  5 – 2  Ecuador

Argentina play Paraguay on Friday, who enjoyed a 4-2 win over Bolivia in their Group A opener.