The Enner Valencia Show: Ecuador Run Riot Over Hosts Qatar

The South American side beat Qatar 2-0 in the first match of the World Cup.

Written by Lachlan Sherriff

It's been 1,589 days but we're finally watching World Cup football again.

The hosts of the 2022 World Cup, Qatar, took on Ecuador in a match to forget for the Qataris, as they became the first host nation to lose the opening World Cup match in the tournament's 92 year history.

Does anyone remember Enner Valencia? The Ecuadorian striker scored eleven goals in 75 EPL matches for West Ham and Everton before leaving for Mexico in 2017. We can't blame you if he's slipped your mind.

But the now-Fenerbache striker made us all remember him again, as he was inches away from a first half hat-trick at the World Cup.

Valencia opened the scoring in the second minute, as calamity at the back gave him a free header. However VAR ruled that the man with the assist, Felix Torres was in an offside position

It's tight.

However Valencia didn't let it affect him, and would score the first goal thirteen minutes later from the penalty spot after Qatari goalkeeper Saad Al-Sheeb was given a yellow card for bringing Valencia down in the box. Valencia sent him the wrong way and made it 1-0.

Valencia then doubled his tally and Ecuador's lead after scoring a header off a perfect cross from Angelo Preciado. As Martin Tyler said, this was the Enner Valencia show.

Above: Enner Valencia's header doubles Ecuador's lead.

Qatar's best chance came as Almoez Ali missed a header right before half-time, and neither of the teams had any real chances through-out the second half, as Ecuador won the first match of the World Cup 2-0.

None of that was the most entertaining moment though. This was.

"I put billions into this just to be outclassed by Enner Valencia".