Ecuador fell behind early against the Netherlands, but Valencia’s equalizer saved 1–1 and a point.
With the goal, Valencia made sure to have scored Ecuador’s last six goals in a World Cup context.
This is the impressive list:
+ One against Switzerland in 2014
+ Two against Honduras in 2014
+ Two against Qatar 2022
+ One against the Netherlands in 2022
Tops the shooting league
With three goals, Enner Valencia tops the scoring league in the Qatar World Cup. The battle in Group A for the two round of 16 places enters the final round of group play. The Netherlands tops on four points, as many as Ecuador and third Senegal stands on three points.
Ecuador and Senegal play a direct decisive match on Tuesday. But can Valencia play? He was replaced and immediately had a large ice pack strapped around his left knee.
Valencia was replaced injured at the end of the match.
The Netherlands were a disappointment at the Khalifa Stadium in al-Rayyan. Still, the orange got off to an excellent start.
Midfielder Davy Klaassen won – as he usually does – a duel and the ball ended up in Cody Gakpo’s hands. The 23-year-old from PSV Eindhoven is most comfortable with his right foot. The dream hit showed what he can also do with his left ankle. Hernan Galindez was nowhere close to stopping Gapko’s second goal of the playoffs.
But the goal already after just over five minutes promised more than it delivered. Louis van Gaal’s men took the lead, but not the command. In addition, the game was too passive, slow, out of sync.
Saved by the bar
Andries Noppert, who made his national team debut against Senegal, was given much more to stand in than Galindez. The 28-year-old from Heerenveen excelled between the posts. Like when, partially obscured, he made a reflex save from Valencia’s quick shot.
Pervis Estupinan pushed in first-half stoppage time for what he and Ecuador thought was the equaliser, but the goal was correctly disallowed for offside. However, the flag was kept down and the VAR room had no objections when Valencia raked in Noppert’s return minutes into the second half.
Gonzalo Plata was centimeters from sending in an Ecuadorian winning goal but the hard long-range shot hit the crossbar.