World Cup hosts Qatar got off to a disappointing start at the Al Bayt Stadium in Doha after falling 2-0 to Ecuador on Sunday night.
Ecuador looked strong in all departments with a sublime performance in the first half, Enner Valencia netting a brace to seal the Group A win for the La Tri.
Coming to this match, the books favored the Ecudorians and they took advantage with a quick offensive start. Just three minutes into the match , a quick long well calculated ball dipped behind the defense line and Felix Torres fired an acrobatic volley across the face of goal that was headed home by former West Ham United striker Valencia.
However, a VAR ruled the goal for an offside yet when the replays were shown, there initially appeared to be no offside to be found. But when the replay was displayed again, it revealed that an Ecuador player had in fact been offside when the free-kick was taken – if only by a kneecap’s length.
Ten minutes later, Ecuador went ahead after Qatar goalkeeper Saad Alsheeb came out with a flying tackle on Valencia ,resulting to a penalty and a yellow card for the custodian.
Valencia showed composure before trotting up to the ball , slotting it into the bottom right corner, with helpless Alsheeb diving the wrong side.
Pervis Estupinan almost scored the second for Ecuador but he missed a crucial ball from close range in the 40th minute failing to properly land in a lovely cross with the entire defense line beaten in the air.
Ecuadorians doubled their lead in the 31st minute whenValencia got to an end of a cross from Romario Ibara and headed Ecuador to 2-0 lead.
Qatar had offered little threat in the first half, but on the 40th minute Akram Afif picked up the ball on the left-hand-side and carried it hard down the wing while going shoulder to shoulder with Preciado, but the ball ended up going off the backline.
With a two goal cushion , the Ecuadorians pushed the Qatarians in their own half with sleek touches and selfish possession at the start of the second half while cutting out any meaningful delivery of balls to the flanks Qatar’s Almoez Ali and Bassam Alwari
The introduction of Mohamed Muntari in the Qatar midfield after 70 minutes brought composure at the Qatar center but all attempted attacks for the Maroons were cut out by a solid Ecuador defense.
Qatar will return into action next week on Friday, November 25, when they take on Senegal at Al Thumama Stadium, while Ecuador will play their second game the same day, when they battle in Netherlands at Khalifa International Stadium.
