Fireworks hissed glowingly in the night-black desert sky - but then the big disappointment followed.

Qatar has opened the most controversial World Cup in football history with the first defeat of a host ever: The emirate heralded its multi-billion dollar project after a pompous show with a sportingly disappointing 0: 2 (0: 2) against Ecuador and has to end early fear.

The most mysterious team of the tournament did not come anywhere close to World Cup level.

Enner Valencia (16th, penalty kick/31st) became the first World Cup star with two goals and dampened the clearly noticeable euphoria of the 2019 Asian champions in the "Bedouin tent stadium" Al-Bayt north of Doha.

Before that there had been another much-noticed first: the semi-automatic offside detection, a new tool for the World Cup referees, led to the disallowance of an earlier Valencia goal in the 3rd minute.

Most of the 67,372 spectators were still cheering, but they saw their team overwhelmed and nervous - and left the stadium in droves before the final whistle.

Hardly any sequence of passes was successful, Qatar constantly ran behind and often only knew how to help themselves with fouls.

Goalkeeper Saad Al-Sheeb made several mistakes.

The second game in Group A will be played by Senegal and the Netherlands on Monday (5 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the World Cup, on ZDF and on MagentaTV).

Qatar gave the go-ahead for its politically meticulously planned show object, the World Cup, as a dream from the Arabian Nights: with camels, drums and saber dancing, but also more modern elements.

US Oscar winner Morgan Freeman (85) led the ceremony in the $850 million new World Cup building.

Qatar, tradition-conscious and open - that should be the message.

At 19.02 local time, after a short speech by Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Qatar's 'star player' Almoez Ali kicked off the final proof that with enough money in sport anything can be had.

The ball rolled and Gianni Infantino laughed in his white leather chair.

The FIFA President wishes for a happy tournament without tiresome discussions about human rights or degrading working conditions.

The Swiss, who moved part of his life to Doha, had been told more than enough about this in the 4371 days since the tournament was awarded.

But enormous question marks remain, and not just about the rights of women and people from the LGBTIQ community.

"Welcome, dear friends!" Infantino called.

It took FIFA five years to realize that the summer would have been too hot for a World Cup.

Eleven and a half years to give the tournament a proper, singular opening game – and after 4369 days, Qatar announced a ban on beer in the stadium apart from the VIP boxes.

That was a slap in the face for FIFA.

Valencia as a first-half man

But, actually, about football: Qatar had been isolated in Europe for months and enjoyed much more meticulous preparation than all other nations - also because everyone in the squad plays in the domestic league.

But there was no class to be seen.

Valencia used the confusion after a goalkeeper error to score what was supposed to be the first goal of the tournament, but it was immediately withdrawn due to an offside position.

It was also Valencia who was fouled from the penalty spot and easily converted himself.

The striker from Fenerbahce Istanbul and now the oldest goalscorer in a World Cup opening game later scored again, a comeback of the hosts seemed hardly imaginable: despite a first Qatari big chance from Almoez Ali (45 + 5).

Ecuador continued to dominate, with Bayer Leverkusen's Piero Hincapie in defence.

Qatar, on the other hand, failed to build pressure, causing the game to spill badly in the desert.

This also affected the mood in the stadium: the organized Qatari support began to flag, and many seats were suddenly deserted.