Ecuador captain Enner Valencia scored twice in the first half to stun the hosts Qatar in the opening match of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The tournament opener was preceded by the opening ceremony featuring the likes of Morgan Freeman and Jung Kook of BTS.
Football’s biggest party is now upon us. Led by a dazzling show of lights, dancers, music, narration, as well as cultural references and throwbacks to previous World Cups, Qatar kicked off the first FIFA World Cup to be held in the Arab world in an emphatic fashion.
Morgan Freeman lent his voice to the narration of events that brought cultures and religions together in the name of football while famous K-pop group BTS’ member Jung Kook set the stage alight with a live performance of ‘Dreamers,’ one of the songs of this World Cup at the Bedouin tent-resembling Al Bayt Stadium.
On the pitch, however, hosts Qatar failed to make much of an impression as Ecuador eased past them in a 2-0 victory thanks to two first-half goals from captain Enner Valencia. It ended up being the first time that a host nation lost the opening match in the tournament’s 92-year-old history. This was also the first occasion since the 1978 World Cup where the hosts failed to net a single goal in the tournament opener.
The Fenerbahce attacker scored an early penalty after goalkeeper Saad Al-Sheeb tripped him after he was put through on goal. The Qatari goalkeeper then dived the wrong way as Valencia scored the most casual penalty in recent memory to get the wind sailing in Ecuador’s sails.
For his second, Valencia was unmarked but still showed great technique to stoop and take Angelo Preciado’s cross almost from behind him to head past Al-Sheeb again.
The first half could have been even worse for the hosts in front of 67,372 fans as Valencia also had a third-minute header disallowed after a VAR checked deemed that an Ecuador was in an offside position in the buildup to the goal.
“I dreamt so many times about winning this opening match. This was a dream that I managed to score and help my team get the three points,”
Valencia said.
“We managed to score a couple of quick goals which helped us to get control of the game and win the three points … We think we can go very far and perform well.”
Ecuador’s second goal and first-half performance was enough to kill the match as they resorted to game management in the second half. Although Qatar showed more solidity in the second 45, they failed to come close to the opponent goal.
