Enner Valencia scored his third goal of the tournament to help Ecuador produce one of the narrow World Cup scores in the Friday action. As a result, no team has yet advanced to the round of 16, but Qatar, which had earlier that day lost to Senegal 3-1, is eliminated. Cody Gakpo’s second goal of the match gave the Netherlands an early advantage, but Ecuador answered early in the second half through Enner Valencia. The former West Ham striker scored his third goal of the game, although there were late concerns for him due to a knee injury that required carrying out. Ecuador will advance if they defeat Senegal, while the Netherlands still need a point from their last group match against Qatar on Tuesday.
Gakpo’s first goal for the Netherlands came against Senegal with six minutes remaining, but against Ecuador, a team that had had seven straight clean sheets, it took him until the sixth minute. The PSV Eindhoven forward set himself up with two touches on the edge of the box after receiving a feed from Davy Klaasen, and then he sent a shot just inside Hernan Galindez’s near post.
When Angelo Preciado glanced in a shot from the edge of the box just before halftime, Ecuador felt they had taken the lead. Because Jackson Porozo was deemed to be obstructing Andries Noppert’s view of the goal, the goal was disallowed for offside. Although Noppert could only deflect Estupinan’s shot into Valencia’s path, who had free rein of the six-yard box to prod into an empty net after 49 minutes, Ecuador was not to be denied the equaliser. Again, VAR was used to check for offside, but this time, it was clear that the striker was on.
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