Enner Valencia raged on the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor when he helped Ecuador shake off a very disappointing Qatar group within the opener of the 2022 World Cup event.
The Fenerbahce striker picked up the place he left off, having scored Ecuador’s final three targets at a World Cup in 2014. Tonight, he added two to his private tally as the tri they pulled off a simple 2-0 victory to begin off on the precise foot in Group A.
The house group was an utter disappointment as they had been stifled by Ecuador’s quick tempo and ball circulation. They struggled to place collectively any significant motion and missed probably the most fundamental passes as their forwards Ali Almoez and Akram Afif barely noticed the ball.
The late addition of Mohammed Muntari produced their solely probability of be aware, a daring volley from exterior the field that went large.
Gustavo Alfaro’s Ecuador, however, had whole management from the outset. They need to have been up after 5 minutes, however their first try to win was dominated out by VAR.
The Qatari goalkeeper confirmed that top ball receptions are usually not his robust level, as he missed the ball twice and put Félix Torres to serve Valencia within the heart of the world with a spectacular shot that led to the annulled conversion of the Fenerbahce man.
It was solely a matter of time although, as Valencia was quickly intercepted within the field with a superb via ball, forcing Saad Al-Sheeb to carry him down. The Ecuadorian’s penalty conversion marked the primary objective scored within the 2022 World Cup and his fourth in a world championship stage.
In 31 minutes, the tri had his second Moses Caicedo recovered the ball within the remaining third for Qatar and served to Angelo Preciado, whose cross from the precise deflected a spectacular Valencia header into the precise publish of the online.
Qatar gave some indicators of life simply earlier than the break with Pedro “Ró-Ró”’s cross from the precise however Ali Almoez failed to attach with the ball.
These anticipating a second-half turnaround from the house group had been disillusioned as Ecuador had no downside switching to energy-saving mode and preserving their double lead.
He was near including the third when a shot from Romario Ibarra within the fifty fifth minute was saved by Al-Sheeb, then he started to decelerate the sport and save his power, particularly these of his group. objective scorer Valencia who left the sphere of play after struggling a blow to the knee.
Ecuador confirmed that they will battle with Senegal and the Netherlands for a spot within the knockout section regardless that tonight’s opposition wasn’t precisely the hardest check.
However, Qatar and their coach, Félix Sánchez, might want to return to the drafting board rapidly, as their lack of choices and passive perspective had been appalling to say the least.
MATCH SCORECARD
November 20, 2022 – FIFA World Cup Group A
QATAR 0-2 ECUADOR
SCORERS: 16′ Pen. Valencia, 31′ Valencia
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QATAR (5-3-2): Al Sheeb; Pedro Miguel, A. Hassan (71′ Al Bayati), H. Ahmed, Hisham, Khoukhi; Hatem, Alhaydos, Boudiaf; Afif; Almoez Ali (71′ Muntari) (Y. Hassan, Barsham, Waad, Salman, Alaaeldin, Assadalla, Mohamad, Muneer, Al Hajri, Madibo, Abdulraheem, Gaber, Mostafa Tarek Meshaal) Coach: Sanchez |
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ECUADOR (4-4-2): Galindez; A. Preciado, Torres, Hincapié, Estupinan; Silver, Mendez, Caicedo (91′ Franco), Ibarra (68′ Sarmiento); Valencia (77′ Cifuentes), Estrada (91′ Rodríguez) (Ramírez, Domínguez, Arboleda, Pacho, Gruezo, Preciado, Arreaga, Mena, Palacios Espinoza, Reasco, Porozo) Coach: Alfaro |
GRADES: Yellow playing cards: Al-Sheeb, Ali, Afif, Boudiaf (Q), Caicedo, Méndez (E); Added Time: 1st Half 5′, 2nd Half 5′
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Valencia Runs Riot in World Cup Opener