The selected one Ecuador beat its counterpart from Uruguay 2-1, with Argentine Marcelo Bielsa as coach of the light blue team, at 2,850 meters of altitude in Quitofor the second date of the South American Qualifiers for the next World Cup in 2026.
Uruguay started winning with a goal Agustín Canobbio but Ecuador he turned it around with a double from the defender Felix Torres.
The victory left the “Tri” with zero points for having started the qualifying rounds with -3 due to the sanction received for the case of Byron Castillo (badly included in the past qualifiers), while the “charrúas” continue with three units.
Ecuador, which featured the debut of Kendry Paezwho at 16 years, 4 months and 8 days is the second youngest player to debut with his national team in South American Qualifiers After the Argentine Diego Maradona who did it at 16 years, 4 months and 7 days, he went out to impose the home team with correct positioning in the middle of the field and careful passes that little by little placed him in the rival field with the Uruguayan goal as the north football.
Uruguay, For his part, he was unable to settle in, he had a hard time generating associated play and he waited in his field for the advance of the “Tri”.
The first danger came from the local representative with a powerful shot from outside the area by forward Enner Valencia that forced the “Charrúa” goalkeeper. Sergio Rochet to respond satisfactorily after 17 minutes.
As the minutes passed, the Uruguayans tried to even things out, but they could not be clear with the ball or generate offensive play, unlike Ecuador, which was more precise and at times also vertical.
Rochet, the “one” of Uruguay and Internacional, from Porto Alegre, shone again with another wonderful save against a shot from Angelo Preciado to keep your arc at zero.
In the first clear chance he had Uruguay, Canobbio, half turn after an overflow and cross from Maximiliano Araujo, he was able to open the scoring at the worst moment of his team’s game.
When it seemed that Bielsa’s team were going to go into the break with the advantage in their favor, defender Félix Torres hit the ball with his head, after a corner from the left, to equalize the score.
At the beginning of the second stage, the locals came out looking for victory and after five minutes they had the chance to take the lead with a penalty that was missed by striker Enner Valencia.
The team led by Spanish coach Felix Sánchez Bas put pressure on the Uruguayans to come out, was quick in passing and continued looking for the rival goal.
At 15 minutes, a cross from Páez from the left again found defender Félix Torres in the center forward position to score a double and thus put his team ahead.
Uruguay, with some name changes, tried to get ahead on the field with more impetus than clarity in the game, while the local team seemed comfortable with the result in their favor and handled the ball with order, although without shining, to end up keeping their first victory in the current South American qualifier.
In the next qualifying window, Ecuador will face Bolivia and Colombia, while Uruguay will face Colombia and Brazil.
Formations and scores
Source: Ambito
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