Qatar 2022 is a World Cup of firsts.
This is the first World Cup to be held in an Arab country, as the first FIFA Winter World Cup.
The result of Sunday’s match between Qatar and Ecuador provided the former.
Qatar, the first host country to be defeated in the opening match of a tournament.
They were soundly defeated across Ecuador.
Qatari players pictured look down on their loss to Ecuador in the opening match of the 2022 World Cup
IMAGO/Sven Simon
Ecuadorian captain Enner Valencia scored two goals and saw them disallowed in the first 32 minutes.
Valencia took less than 3 minutes to locate the net for the first time, but his header after an acrobatic hand from Felix Torres cancelled out for offside after a long VAR review.
The decision to ban Valencia’s initial attack surprised many spectators, as it obviously looked offside to the naked eye.
But all conspiracy theories about favouring the host country died out 10 minutes later when Ecuador received a penalty for a foul by Qatari goalkeeper Saad Al Sheeb.
Valencia had been the guy who fouled and it was he who scored the first goal of the tournament.
The former Everton and West Ham striker scored before half-time as he returned home from a cross from Angelo Preciado.
Valencia have already scored Ecuador’s last five goals in the World Cup.
Qatar’s national team had been educating in combination since September in a bid to impress in their first World Cup appearance.
But they will probably have to play much more against the other groups in Group A, Netherlands and Senegal, if they need to fit the first host country to claim 0 points.
Ecuador is now unbeaten in its last 8 matches, a World Cup qualifier against Argentina.
Since the 1-1 draw against Argentina in March, Ecuador has seven head-to-head matches, 4 of which ended in a 0-0 draw.