Ivory Coast\u00a0started the\u00a02026 World Cup\u00a0on an incredible note, defeating\u00a0Ecuador\u00a0in a\u00a0surprise 1-0 win off a late goal in the final minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ecuador may have entered the tournament as a dark horse, but it was Ivory Coast that controlled most of the game, especially the second half. The Elephants held significant possession and ended with more shots in total, including shots on target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a surprisingly fruitless game for the Ecuador attack, with the team not recording a shot on target until midway through the second half. But Ivory Coast continued to push, until finally finding the back of the net in the 90th minute. Assisted by\u00a0Wilfried Singo, it was second-half substitute\u00a0Amad Diallo\u00a0who broke through for the Elephants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Diallo was not the only star of the game: also playing a starring role was the crossbar, which denied three total goals \u2014 two for Ecuador and one for Ivory Coast \u2014 to keep the game level until Diallo finally broke through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a statement victory for the Ivory Coast, which has never made it past the group stage in the World Cup. The one-goal win certainly won’t be enough to derail fellow Group E team Germany, which earned\u00a0a 7-1 blowout win\u00a0over\u00a0Cura\u00e7ao\u00a0earlier on Sunday, but it sets the Elephants up for a chance to potentially advance to the knockout stage for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, it’s a tough start for Ecuador, who entered the World Cup with a lot of promise. La Tri’s defense has been key to its run-up to the tournament, but it fell apart right at the end on Sunday. Though Ecuador’s next test against Cura\u00e7ao shouldn’t be too difficult, the group stage finale against\u00a0Germany\u00a0may end up being do-or-die for La Tri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ivory Coast\u00a0started the\u00a02026 World Cup\u00a0on an incredible note, defeating\u00a0Ecuador\u00a0in a\u00a0surprise 1-0 win off a late goal in the final minutes. Ecuador may have entered the tournament as a dark horse, but it was Ivory Coast that controlled most of the game, especially the second half. The Elephants held significant possession and ended with more shots […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12903],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-416237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12903"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416238,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416237\/revisions\/416238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}