World Cup Qualifier: Ecuador 2 Peru 1

La Tricolor got a ever so important victory visiting Peru. This victory makes us dream to go to the World Cup for our third consecutive time. We moved up one spot in the table and are now right under Uruguay just because of goal difference.

The first few minutes of the game, Peru dominating the game but little by little Ecuador started getting confidence until at the 36th minute Jefferson Montero took the ball away from Zambrano then passed it to Palacios who then passed it to Tenorio, who spotted Montero to his side and all Montero had to do it tap the ball inside the net. Ecuador was up one to zero. Peru quickly tried to recuperate from the goal and at the 50th minute Segundo Castillo took down his opponent and a free-kick was called in favor of Peru. Juan Manuel Vargas took the free-kick and curled it in passed Elizaga. After that strangely enough Ecuador started dominating the game and looked like they were the ones who were playing at home. At the 58th minute Cristian Noboa spotted Carlos Tenorio and crossed the ball to him and Tenorio scored a powerful header to give us the lead. Ecuador had numerous occasions to win a game by a larger margin but couldn’t put it in the back of the net including Jefferson Montero had a opportunity to score his brace but couldn’t put it pass the Peruvian goalkeeper, Raúl Fernández.

Jorge Guagua, Marcelo Fleitas, Jefferson Montero, Carlos Tenorio, and Pablo Palacios were playing replacing Ivan Hurtado,Giovanni Espinoza, Antonio Valencia, Felipe Caicedo and Cristian Benitez respectively because of either suspension or injury. All these players showed a superb performance and our defense (which I have to say, I was really nervous about after that friendly we had against El Salvador) stood strong with Uruguay-born Fleitas making his debut at the ripe age of 35.

Man of the Match: The man of the match has to go to “El Demoledor” Carlos Tenorio. Recovered from a serious leg injury that made him stay in the sidelines for close to seven months, he assisted youngster Jefferson Montero and scored the winning goal.