World cup 2022: Qatar’s defeat to Ecuador makes history

In the history of Football World Cup, no host country has lost the opening match. But, for the first time Qatar made the history.

The ‘goal’ which Valencia scored within the first five minutes was disallowed after video assistant referee (VAR) review. Nevertheless, Ecuador was awarded penalty for foul play by Qatar side and the Ecuadorian player; E. Valencia coolly put the goal back of the net. With the frequent dominance over Qatar, Ecuador managed to secure one more goal before half time.

The Ecuadorian show visibly demoralized the host crowd evident from empty space in the stadium which was quite a peculiar condition. The play continued after the break, as expected the Ecuadorian team was able to maintain its clean sheet in the game despite some visible improvement by the host players.

In group A, Ecuador stood firmly at first place with 3 points while the host country remained at the bottom. The other two team – Africa Cup of Nations winner Senegal and three time world cup finalist Netherlands are competing to top the group in the knockout stage. However, a loss to Ecuador shrinks Qatar’s chance of progress the knockout stage.