Ecuador eased past World Cup debutants Qatar 2-0 connected Sunday with 2 goals from seasoned striker Enner Valencia successful the archetypal opening-game decision for a big federation successful the tournament's history.
Valencia scored an aboriginal punishment and added a well-taken 31st-minute header to springiness the South Americans a commanding first-half pb arsenic the Qataris looked flooded by the value of the occasion.
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"Obviously this was not what we were hoping for," Qatar manager Felix Sanchez said.
"There is nary excuse, I privation to congratulate our opponents Ecuador. There is simply a batch of country for improvement.
"We did not play astatine our champion level. Maybe the work and the nerves got the amended of us. We conscionable person to fto spell and hide astir it and beryllium much competitive. We tin bash it."
It could person been adjacent worse for the hosts successful beforehand of a 67,372-fan assemblage astatine the Al Bayt Stadium had Valencia, 33, not had a third-minute header disallowed for a marginal offside aft goalkeeper Saad al-Sheeb had flapped astatine the ball.
It was al-Sheeb who aboriginal tripped Valencia erstwhile helium was done connected extremity and past dived the incorrect mode arsenic the Ecuadorian calmly dispatched the resulting punishment successful the 16th minute.
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For his second, Valencia was unmarked but inactive showed large method to stoop and instrumentality Angelo Preciado's transverse astir from down him to caput past al-Sheeb again.
"I dreamt truthful galore times astir winning this opening match. This was a imagination that I managed to people and assistance my squad get the 3 points," Valencia said.
"We managed to people a mates of speedy goals which helped america to get power of the crippled and triumph the 3 points ... We deliberation we tin spell precise acold and execute well."
That extremity killed the crippled arsenic a contest, and the 2nd fractional was played astatine a dilatory pace, with galore Qatar fans leaving earlier the extremity arsenic Ecuador's fans chanted "Olé!"
Despite an enviously agelong clip to enslaved and bid together, including summertime camps successful Europe, Qatar looked mostly toothless. Almoez Ali had their champion accidental astatine the extremity of the archetypal half, heading wide but past judged offside.
Mohammed Muntari besides fired implicit successful the dying minutes.
Both sides present person to play Senegal and the Netherlands successful the radical stage, with Qatar's chances of picking up points oregon qualifying looking slim connected this performance.
Ecuador are dreaming of surpassing their champion erstwhile World Cup showing, erstwhile they reached the past 16 successful 2006.
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