At Al Bayt Stadium, Ecuador’s Enner Valencia beat Qatar for the tournament’s opening goal

In the opening match of the FIFA World Cup 2022 between Ecuador and the host nation Qatar on Sunday at the Al Bayt Stadium, Enner Valencia scored three goals
In the opening match of the FIFA World Cup 2022 between Ecuador and the host nation Qatar on Sunday, Enner Valencia put on a goal-scoring clinic that made headlines for all the right reasons. The 2022 FIFA World Cup will go down in history thanks to Valencia’s two goals in the tournament’s opening match between the two nations at the Al Bayt Stadium.
Within the opening three minutes of the game, Valencia believed he had scored the decisive first goal. Valencia’s attempt to score the quickest first goal in FIFA World Cup history was halted by Video Assistant Referee (VAR), who disallowed his early effort after a thorough goal check. Valencia made apologies, though, and scored the game’s first goal for the South American nation in the 16th minute.
Valencia was struck in the penalty area and Ecuador were given a penalty kick. Valencia was calm as a cucumber as he managed to send the goalie the wrong way to give La Tri Los Amarillos (the Yellows) an early advantage in the FIFA World Cup 2022. Valencia became Ecuador’s top goal scorer at the FIFA World Cup by scoring the team’s spectacular first goal. At the FIFA World Cup, the 33-year-old has four goals to his credit for the South American country.
Ecuador’s captain converted the penalty kick well, sending the ball into the bottom right corner for his fourth World Cup goal of the tournament and a 1-0 advantage over Qatar. Players from Qatar had a hard time settling down when playing the South American squad because they kept losing possession of the ball and weren’t able to pass it accurately. Almoez Ali received a second yellow card for Qatar for tackling the captain of Ecuador.
Valencia scored once again for Ecuador in the 31st minute as they continued to dominate the hosts. The Ecuadorian captain perfectly directed a cross from the left by right defender Angelo Preciado into the bottom left corner of the goal, scoring his second goal.
After the second goal, there was another attempt to rule out offside, but Ecuador was successful and now led Qatar 2-0. When the hosts realised Valencia was causing problems for Qatar, they began to keep an eye on him and frequently tackled him to the ground. Karim Boudiaf of Qatar was shown a yellow card for tackling none other than Valencia.
Valencia continued to take blows and was forced to leave the field in the 43rd minute after being struck in the knee. In the last seconds of the first half, Qatar had an excellent opportunity to score a goal, but Almoez Ali was unable to make solid touch with the ball, and the opportunity was lost.
In their opening encounter of the FIFA World Cup 2022, Qatar trailed 0-2 at the end of the first half.
With a few dangerous runs in the second half, Qatar looked to distribute the ball better, but they lacked the finishing touches.
Although they played stronger football in the second half, they did not appear to be scoring and posed little threat to Ecuador. Mohammed Muntari made a great run and attempted a shot at the goal for Qatar in the 86th minute, missing by a few millimetres.
The game ended with a score of 2-0 in favour of Ecuador because neither team was able to score in the second half.
With this victory, Ecuador made World Cup history by being the first side to defeat the host nation in the tournament’s first game in its 92-year existence.