Ecuador will be looking for their third win when they face Colombia in World Cup qualifying. With five points from three games, Colombia has a perfect record so far this season.
Preview (Ecuador vs. Colombia)
Ecuador hadn’t lost three points for fielding an unregistered player throughout the previous qualifying campaign. They would have been ahead of their opponents in third position in South America’s qualification status. Ironically, the concerned athlete was Bryan Castillo, a resident of Colombia. Several other South American nations urged that Ecuador be punished by being eliminated. La Tricolor’s 2-1 victories over Bolivia and Uruguay after falling to Argentina in their opening match.
Rodrigo Ramallo’s goal for the hosts with barely seven minutes remaining last Friday in Bolivia. It seemed to be setting for a painful draw for Felix Sanchez’s team. Kevin Rodriguez’s goal in stoppage time handed their opponents their third straight loss. Ecuador will be incredibly confident of qualifying for their fifth World Cup if they can defeat Colombia. There are six automatic qualifying positions available for the 2026 World Cup, which has increased from 32 to 48 teams. Colombia will be eager to bounce back and make amends this time around after experiencing the enormous disappointment of reaching the recent World Cup in Qatar at the end of last year.
Los Cafeteros returned to the World Cup’s knockout stages in 2014 and 2018 after a 16-year absence, demonstrating that they are a country whose absence is felt given their general capacity to have a large impact there. The current qualifying campaign was started by Nestor Lorenzo’s team with a slim 1-0 victory against Venezuela. Since then, they have remained unblemished by drawing with Chile and Uruguay, increasing their chances of finishing in the top six.
Team News
Pervis Estupinan, a fullback for Brighton & Hove Albion, won’t be available for Ecuador because of a significant hamstring injury. Jhoanner Chavez will probably continue to fill in at left-back, but Rodriguez might start after coming off the bench to give his team a key victory the last time around.
Jhon Arias possibly making room for the Bournemouth winger. Both of these countries will anticipate easily qualifying after having strong openings to their campaigns, especially as South America is offering an additional automatic qualifying berth for the 2026 World Cup. We expect a draw between these two evenly-matched teams.
Ecuador 1 – 1 Colombia
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