A brace from Enner Valencia decided the
opening match of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, with Ecuador beating the hosts 2-0 in the first group A match. The South American national team scored the two goals in the first half to then control the bland reaction from Qatar and finish the race without too many problems.
The first shiver of the match already came
in the 3rd minute with a goal from Valencia
, however canceled by the Italian referee Orsato after consulting with the Var for offside.
But the joy of the first goal of the 2022 World Cup for the Fenerbahçe striker is only postponed.
In the 16th minute
Valencia
comes face to face with Al Sheeb but.
at the moment of dribbling, he is brought down by the goalkeeper who holds him by the ankle.
Orsato has no doubts and points to the disk
.
Valencia does not miss the penalty for the 1-0.
The same captain of the South American national team repeats himself shortly after.
In the 31st minute Caicedo recovers the ball in the midfield, and serves Preciado who crosses in the center of the area where
Valencia heads off and scores his personal double
.
The first chance for Qatar came in the 50th minute with a cross from Pedro Miguel and a header from Ali which went wide.
In the second half, Ecuador showed good dribbling, with Qatar trying to reopen the match in the 62nd minute with an imperious header from Pedro Miguel.
Then in the 86th minute Muntari arrives first with a ball from the back and volleys from the edge of the area but the shot goes just over the crossbar.
Getty
Ecuador's Enner Valencia celebrates with team mates after scoring the goal
The match marked some unpublished numbers and records:
1: Daniele Orsato is the first Italian referee to officiate the opening match of the World Cup.
2-0: for the first time the opening match of the tournament ended with this result.
The most frequent remains the 1-0 which occurred on five occasions.
5: With his brace against Qatar, his second at the World Cup after his one against Honduras in 2014, Enner Valencia became Ecuador's top scorer in the World Cup with five goals ahead of Agustin Delgado who was held to three.
26: Qatar are one of two national teams, the other being Saudi Arabia, of which all twenty-six players in the squad play in their domestic league.
80: Qatar, the only debutant in this edition, are the 80th team to take part in the finals of the World Cup.
2022: For the first time the national team of the host country has lost the opening match of the World Cup.
The previous budget was seven wins and three draws.