{"id":1258452,"date":"2022-11-25T21:04:05","date_gmt":"2022-11-25T21:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/11\/25\/2022-world-cup-valencia-earns-ecuador-deserved-1-1-draw-against-netherlands\/"},"modified":"2022-11-25T21:04:05","modified_gmt":"2022-11-25T21:04:05","slug":"2022-world-cup-valencia-earns-ecuador-deserved-1-1-draw-against-netherlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/11\/25\/2022-world-cup-valencia-earns-ecuador-deserved-1-1-draw-against-netherlands\/","title":{"rendered":"2022 World Cup: Valencia earns Ecuador deserved 1-1 draw against Netherlands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/3496940-71285968-2560-1440-696x392.jpg\"   alt=\"Ecuador celebrate Image credit: Getty Images\" title=\"Ecuador celebrate  Image credit: Getty Images\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ecuador celebrate<\/p>\n<p>Image credit: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Enner Valencia scored his third goal of the World Cup before being taken off on a stretcher as Ecuador drew with the Netherlands to leave Group A wide open.<\/p>\n<p>PSV Eindhoven forward Cody Gakpo had given the Netherlands the lead after just five minutes and four seconds \u2013 the quickest goal so far in Qatar \u2013 when he struck a shot beautifully into the top of the net.<\/p>\n<p>But the Dutch struggled to build on their lead, with Ecuador\u2019s Pervis Estupinan having a goal disallowed on the stroke of half-time.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/22191989129,1002554\/MGL\/mgl_ado_atunwa_300x250 --><\/p>\n<p>Ecuador fans were bouncing with excitement throughout the second half at the Khalifa International Stadium as they equalised just after the break and continued to create chances against a rattled Netherlands side.<\/p>\n<p>The entire Ecuador squad ran over to the corner flag to celebrate with Valencia after he poked in the rebound from Estupinan\u2019s parried shot in the 49th minute \u2013 and Gonzalo Plata hit the crossbar with a long-range effort shortly after.<\/p>\n<p>Captain Valencia, who scored both goals in Ecuador\u2019s victory over hosts Qatar on the opening night of the World Cup, was a constant threat but his evening was cut short due to injury.<\/p>\n<p>The former West Ham and Everton striker went down in the final minute of normal time and was taken off on a stretcher, but was seen hobbling to his seat in the dugout.<\/p>\n<p>The result means three teams from Group A will be battling it out for a place in the last 16 in the final group match \u2013 the Netherlands, Ecuador and Senegal \u2013 with all three capable of going through as table leaders.<\/p>\n<p>With the Netherlands heavy favourites going into their final group game against bottom side Qatar, all eyes will be on a showdown between Ecuador and Senegal, which will dictate the table order.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you want to become world champion then of course you need to improve a lot as some of the opponents we are yet to face is playing at a much higher level,\u201d said Netherlands boss Louis van Gaal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe simply need to improve our game in terms of ball possession and we are working on that. Whether we\u2019ll make it in this tournament I can\u2019t guarantee that. But I think so.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>            <!--  [embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=videoseries[\/embed]<!--\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>--><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"Wh09c0tvtnA\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Debt Restructuring: Gov&#039;t contemplating debt operation aimed at alleviating pressure on budget.\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Wh09c0tvtnA?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ecuador celebrate Image credit: Getty Images Enner Valencia scored his third goal of the World Cup before being taken off on a stretcher as Ecuador drew with the Netherlands to leave Group A wide open. PSV Eindhoven forward Cody Gakpo had given the Netherlands the lead after just five minutes and four seconds \u2013 the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1258454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[262,1694,1812,6133,13061,4141,556,784],"class_list":["post-1258452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cup","tag-deserved","tag-draw","tag-earns","tag-ecuador","tag-netherlands","tag-valencia","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1258452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1258452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1258452\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1258452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1258452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1258452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}