By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
A late goal from Amad Diallo earned the Ivory Coast a 1-0 win in and end-to-end opening World Cup clash with Ecuador in Philadelphia on Sunday.
Diallo – who entered as a substitute in the 56th minute – broke through with a left-footed shot from just inside the penalty area that beat diving goalkeeper Hernan Galindez. Wilfried Singo set up the goal with a strong run down the right side.
The Ivorians have impressed since booking their place at the finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico, following comfortable warm-up wins over South Korea and Scotland in March and a 2-1 victory away to France last week.
Making their fourth appearance in the World Cup and the first since 2014, Ivory Coast took a big step towards reaching the knockout stage for the first time.
Elye Wahi hit the crossbar in the 52nd minute for Ivory Coast, after Ecuador’s John Yeboah and Nilson Angulo did the same in the opening half.
Ecuador, making their fifth World Cup appearance and looking to reach the knockout round for the second time, were playing a virtual home game at the stadium, otherwise known as the Lincoln Financial Field, with most of the capacity crowd of 68,274 wearing the yellow shirts of La Tri.
The loss provided Ecuador with a painful start to their World Cup campaign and ended their 19-game unbeaten streak. They will meet Curacao. Both matches will be played June 20.
Ivory Coast’s manager Emerse Fae said his side showed World Cup ambitions are genuine.
“We came to the U.S. for this, and we came here with ambitions, with high hopes,” Fae told reporters.
“We don’t want to just have visited the U.S. and have to go back, so everything is going well for now.
We’ve beaten France. We are starting this competition well against Ecuador, a very tough team, but we managed to come into our own and won the match. This shows that our team has acquitted itself well.”
Meanwhile Sweden’s Yasin Ayari scored two sensational goals and Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyokeres also got on the scoresheet as they cruised to a 5-1 World Cup Group F victory over Tunisia on Sunday.