Ecuador 2 Germany 1
What a comeback to stay in the World Cup. It was a must-win game for Ecuador today and what a way to do it coming from behind to qualify for the Round of 32, the Germans got off to the perfect start just two minutes in as Floarian Wirtz played the ball back to Leroy Sane just inside the box who curled it into the bottom corner to give Germany the lead. It didn’t take long for Ecuador to hit back however as in the 9th minute a poor touch from Nmecha allowed Pedro Vite to nip in as the ball fell to Nilson Angulo who drove forward and fired into the bottom corner from just outside the box to get Ecuador right back into the game, from there the rest of the half was cagey with Germany dominating possession without creating any clear-cut chances against a strong Ecuador defence. The same can be said for the second half but Ecuador knew they needed to win so eventually started throwing more players forward which did lead to their second goal from a corner which was flicked on by Kevin Rodriguez at the near-post to Gonzalo Plata who nipped in ahead of Neuer to fire Ecuador through to the next round, a huge win and a team you wouldn’t want to face in the knockouts.
What a show of character from the Ecuador players. After that very early Germany goal it would’ve been easy for the Ecuadorian players to drop their heads but it seemed to galvanise the team to score their first goal of the tournament a few minutes later, from there they relied on their resolute defence to keep Germany out whilst counter-attacking when they could which did lead to some good chances before they managed to get the second over the line. We knew Ecuador’s strength before the tournament was their defence but it was about time some of their attackers turned up when it mattered the most, Enner Valencia was a shambles in the last game against Curacao where he could have scored a hat-trick and he wasn’t much better today but it was Plata and Angulo who showed up and got Ecuador over the line in the end with two crucial goals. The positive with Ecuador is I actually think they’ll be better in the knockouts than the group stage as the knockouts are always more cagey by default which I think will suit this team, how far can Ecuador go at this World Cup?
A performance to be worried about for Germany? Honestly I’ve not been overly impressed with Germany at this World Cup so far, they smashed Curacao in the first group game whilst looking pretty shaky on the counter and easily could have lost against Ivory Coast if Adingra took his chance at the end. I thought Nagelsmann might rest a few players as they had already secured 1st place in the group but he opted to stick with the 1st team who were really poor in my opinion, I think the Scholtterbeck injury is more devastating than people think for this German team as he was crucial in playing out from the back which Rudiger can’t do to that level. We are still yet to see Musiala and Wirtz hit the levels they hit in Euro 2024 which leads to the German attack being quite blunt at times with Havertz up front, I’d be tempted to start Undav in the knockouts if I was Nagelsmann but I don’t think he will. Are you worried about Germany in the knockouts? I would be.
What are we thinking about the 3rd place teams going through? I’ve got to be honest I think this new format where 8 of the best 3rd place teams go through to the Round of 32 has kind of killed the jeopardy of the group stage in the World Cup, I’ve liked seeing the extra teams but I feel like there was a better way of doing it than the way FIFA have gone about it. It just means that as long as you win one game in the group stages you have a great chance of going through unless you have a terrible goal-difference like Scotland, I think FIFA should have put the 1st place teams straight through to the Round of 16 and then just have 2nd and 3rd place teams face off in the Round of 32. At least finishing 1st in the group would mean something then, similar to the way UEFA have done it with the Champions League, can you think of any better ways to format the World Cup? It’s definitely a tough one.
What has this result done for the group? As I said above this result means that Ecuador go through to the Round of 32 as one of the bet 3rd place teams on 4 points whilst Germany top the group with Ivory Coast in 2nd after beating Curacao 2-0 with Nicolas Pepe scoring two goals, as for their opponents in the next round it looks like Ivory Coast vs Norway, Germany vs Paraguay and Mexico vs Ecuador but that all could change over the next few days. Well done to Ecuador for a brilliant comeback win over one of the favourites, just how far can they go?