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 wrestle to make it out of their group of their first ever World Cup.
It seemed like Qatar had conceded a objective inside six minutes of kick-off within the match on Sunday night at al-Bayt Stadium. However the header from Ecuador’s Enner Valencia, from a long-distance free-kick try from Pervis Estupinan near the midway line, was struck off by VAR moments later.
But it surely was solely a brief reprieve for Qatar, taking part in in entrance of the Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, different Qatari royals, and several other international leaders in a crowd of 60,000.
After simply fifteen minutes 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 appropriate of the keeper, Valencia grew to become Ecuador’s all-time highest World Cup objective scorer.
Fifteen minutes later, Valencia once more discovered the online – doubling Ecuador’s benefit with a header from a cross from simply outdoors the field on the appropriate.
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 Muntari nearly set Al Bayt alight when he obtained an extended ball and tried to beat the keeper with a volley – however the ball landed on high of the netting.
Extra to comply with.