Qatar - Ecuador Match Report

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Ecuador's players celebrate after scoring

In the first game of the most controversial World Cup in history, a game that was itself controversially moved forwards by a day only 3 months before the start of the tournament, Ecuador produced a dominant display against tournament hosts Qatar. 

Ecuador led within the first 5 minutes via an Enner Valencia header off of a set play but this goal was disallowed due to an initially hard to spot offside. However, the goal was shown to be clearly offside thanks to the help of the Semi Automated Offside Technology which recently debuted in the UEFA Champions League. Valencia has been in fine form for Fenerbahçe this season and has 13 goals and 4 assists in only 12 Süper Lig games, already beating his highest ever goal tally for the Turkish giants. 

The story of the first half was Valencia, who became the first Ecuadorian to score 4 goals in a World Cup Finals in the 19th minute when he calmly slotted his penalty past Saad Al Sheeb. He then became the first Ecuadorian to score 5 goals when he scored Ecuador's second goal, a skilful header at the back post. Unfortunately, Valencia hyperextended his knee late on in the first half and had to come off shortly after the break. Ecuador looked far less dangerous after Valencia came off and had to hold on to their lead for the rest of the second half. 

Overall, the display was very disappointing for Qatar. The hosts struggled to make any clear chances and their two star players, Akram Afif and Almoez Ali were both awful. Ali's only major impact on the game was a yellow card received for a foul on Enner Valencia whose three fouls drawn all resulted in yellow cards. Afif had a similarly poor display, also booked, this time for a foul on Real Valladolid's Gonzalo Plata. To have a star striker feeling the need to drop as deep as Afif did against Ecuador really says a lot about Qatar's chances of even scoring a goal. About the only bright spot for Qatar was Pedro Miguel, born and raised in Portugal, who looked occasionally dangerous and had a couple of decent chances. 

The game had only 11 shots, the lowest ever recorded, and despite Ecuador's victory I cannot see either team making it out of their group.