DOHA, Qatar – Striker Enner Valencia scored both goals in the match that Ecuador beat Qatar this Sunday in the first game of the 2022 World Cup at the Al Bayt stadium, which means that it is the first time that a host country loses the opening match.
Ecuador’s dominance was repeated in the second half, where they generated dangerous plays in the Qatari goal. In minute 67 the first change of the game occurred with the entry of Sarmiento for Ibarra in Ecuador and minutes later the first Qatari action took place that brought danger to the Ecuadorian goal with a shot from Afif.
Ecuador won not because it was vastly superior but because Qatar was disorganized and lacked football.
The Qatari team barely crossed half the field during the first half of the opening game against Ecuador, but the only opportunity they had was very close to scoring. Look at the video.
Valencia, the Turkish Fenerbahce player, scored a first goal in the 3rd minute, but it was annulled for offside after a VAR intervention.
But the dominance of the Tri against the hosts, clearly inferior, ended up being translated into the score thanks to Valencia, who was replaced in the 75th minute by Cifuentes.
The attacker suffered a penalty after a quarter of an hour that allowed him to score the first goal of the World Cup and 15 minutes later he took advantage of a great cross from Preciado who masterfully headed past Al Sheeb’s net.
VAR disallowed a goal by Ecuadorian striker Enner Valencia against the host team of Qatar. Watch the play here.
The Fenerbahce forward, the great protagonist of the match, has scored five goals in four World Cup matches, since he was the author of three in Brazil 2014, making him the top Ecuadorian scorer in the history of the World Cups.
The game had started with a controversial VAR decision that determined the annulment of a goal by Ecuadorian Enner Valencia due to an advanced position.
ECUADOR INCLINED THE FIELD TOWARDS THE QATAR ARC
Ecuador showed its superiority against the Qatari team and Enner Valencia scored the second goal for the South American team with a header. Look at the video.
The goal play, at minute 2:48 of the first half, crowned a free kick that after some rebounds that ended in the foot of Valencia who pushed the ball into the nets of the Qatar goal. But the goal was later annulled by VAR.
Ecuador dominated from the start of the game and tipped the field towards the goal of the host team, not because they played well but because Qatar had a very poor performance. Qatar played the ball as the only weapon to reach the Ecuadorian goal, without much luck.
Ecuadorian striker Enner Valencia converted the first World Cup goal from a penalty against hosts Qatar. Look at the video.
The match corresponded to Group A, to which Senegal and the Netherlands also belong
These are the two weakest rivals in group A, the host team and an Ecuador that returns after an absent edition.
The duel appeared, on paper, as the one that measures the two Cinderella theorists of the group, which also includes the Netherlands and Senegal, but also two teams that, for different reasons, will cover their football gaps with enthusiasm.
Controversial decision prevents the Ecuadorians from getting ahead of the local Qatar.
The coaches of both teams removed the pressure of being favourites, although they persisted in putting the arguments they are considering on the table.
Ecuador, which is facing its fourth World Cup, sought to overcome its ceiling. The strength created by the Argentine Gustavo Alfaro, the only one that was able to compete with Argentina and Brazil (against whom he drew two draws in the South American qualifiers), wants to overcome the group stage for the second time, after he did it in Germany 2006 and then start dreaming of something else.
Photos: the best moments of the match Qatar vs. Ecuador
That is the moral contract that the coach established with a team that, led by stars like Pervis Estupiñán, has slipped into the elite of planetary football.
In his letter of introduction there is a piece of information: Ecuador arrives in Qatar with a streak of 540 minutes without conceding a goal, both in the qualifying phase, in which it was the third team with the fewest goals after the two giants, and in the previous friendlies used to adjust the blocks.
The other side of the equation is that the two lines of 3 that serve as a dam result in offensive performance, where the Tri shows deficiencies, which were evident in the last duel against Iraq, when Gonzalo Plata scored a penalty in the final stretch.
With that credential, he intends to navigate Ecuador in a different World Cup, where marine charts from other editions are less useful, because it is held in the fall, in the middle of a season already launched.
“They can beat us as a team, but no one is going to beat us as a group,” said the Ecuadorian coach, who unraveled the difficulties that have led La Tri to Qatar and painted a horizon of hope, that of someone who gets stronger by overcoming bumps .
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