Ecuador put two unanswered targets previous Qatar for victory within the World Cup’s opening match.
World Cup hosts Qatar have had a disappointing begin to their marketing campaign, with a 2-0 defeat to Ecuador leaving them going through an uphill battle to make it out of their group of their first-ever World Cup.
It regarded like Qatar had conceded a purpose inside six minutes of kick-off within the match on Sunday night at Al Bayt Stadium. However a header from Ecuador’s Enner Valencia, from a long-distance free-kick try from Pervis Estupinan near the midway line, was struck off by the video assistant referee (VAR) moments later.
However it was solely a short lived reprieve for Qatar, enjoying in entrance of Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, different Qatari royals, and several other international leaders in a crowd of 60,000.
After simply quarter-hour of play, Valencia was introduced down within the field by Qatari goalkeeper Saad al-Sheeb and the referee pointed to the spot with out hesitation. Slotting within the penalty to the best of the keeper, Valencia grew to become Ecuador’s all-time highest World Cup purpose scorer.
Fifteen minutes later, Valencia once more discovered the online – doubling Ecuador’s benefit with a header from a cross from simply exterior the field on the best.
With half an hour gone, Qatar had been two-nil down, and had not even had a contact of the ball within the Ecuadorian field.
The hosts settled as half-time approached, however may handle to transform consolation into a lot significant attacking play within the second half.
An 86th-minute effort from Mohammed Muntari nearly set Al Bayt alight when he obtained an extended ball and tried to beat the keeper with a volley, solely to have the ball landed on high of the netting.
Extra to observe.