World Cup 2022: Enner Valencia gives Ecuador a roaring start with brace as Qatar humbled in opener

Ecuador benefited from Fenerbahçe forward, Enner Valencia to grab a vital 2-0 victory over World Cup host, Qatar at the Al Bayt Stadium.

The tournament officially gets underway on Sunday, but not before the opening ceremony.

Ecuador were widely viewed as the more talented team compared to Qatar in the entire duration.

The match began with controversy with Ecuador finding the back of the net through Enner Valencia on a wild little sequence in the box, but VAR shockingly called an offside that seemed very harsh, yet it was backed up by the recently introduced automated offside technology.

It took him just eleven minutes to score again, striking from the spot. Valencia finished calmly down to his right, sending the goalkeeper the other way to put his team ahead before his brilliant header in the 31st minutes to give his nation a deserved win.

The halftime stats saw the Americans registering three shots and two on goal, while Qatar had two shots.

Back from recess, the third youngest team at the tournament behind Ghana and USA, Ecuador looked very comfortable, missing some great opportunities. As for Qatar, their passing was still quite horrendous, failing to really build much of anything.

Later on, Ghanaian international, Mohammed Muntari who accepted to represent Qatar at the national level came in to replace Ali and nearly scored to reduce the deficit.

However, the hosts showed next to nothing during their first World Cup match in the history of their program. The reigning champions of Asia barely looked like a threat to create a chance, let alone score, putting them in a difficult spot moving forward and the two goals in the first half from Valencia were more than enough as the South Americans had no trouble, claiming the first three points in Group A.

Next in the group will be Senegal facing European giants, Netherlands on Monday.