Key events
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HALF TIME: Ecuador 1-1 Germany
Ecuador responded valiantly to going behind early, and their hope of making it through to the knockouts with a win hasn’t been extinguished yet. Should make for another fun half of football!
45 min +4: Wirtz tries to dribble his way through a cluster of three defenders inside the Ecuador box, the outcome predictable.
45 min +2: This half is petering out a bit. It’s been entertaining stuff on the whole, though. And to be fair, it is hot.
45 min: There will be four additional first-half minutes.
44 min: … and now the second yellow card of the game comes along in short order, Pavolvic tugging back the in-flight Valencia.
43 min: Hincapie is booked for a combination of tugging back Sane and then shaping to get up in the referee’s grille.
41 min: Musiala sashays into the Ecuador box from the left and looks for Havertz in the middle with a low curler. Ordonez comes across to whip clear.
39 min: … although the result is increasingly scrappy fare. You pays your money, etc.
37 min: Both teams take it up a notch. Some hard but fair tackles flying in. All good old-fashioned fun.
35 min: Musiala enters the Ecuador box from the left and shoots. Blocked by Franco for a corner. Wirtz sends it in, but the ball bounces behind everyone and Valencia clear their lines. It’s been a proper mixed bag from Wirtz, who had a huge role in the opener, but whose radar has been skew-whiff ever since.
34 min: Now Kimmich and Pavlovic confuse each other in midfield, allowing Caicedo to romp off with the ball. Once again Ecuador make a balls of the break, and Germany get away with this. Germany can’t keep doing this, though, if they’ve any hope of winning this thing. Imagine this sort of carry-on against France. It’d be carnage.
32 min: Wirtz plays a blind reverse pass back down the German left, and it’s picked off by Angulo, who barrels towards the Germany box. He lays off to Valencia, whose poor shot is blocked by Tah and cleared. That was an awful ball by Wirtz, who put his team in trouble; Germany were light at the back and lucky Angulo and Valencia made a mess of the counter.
30 min: The end of the hydration break (which incidentally continues, pleasingly, to be given the bird by all members of the crowd).
28 min: … and here it is. Drinks! Krombacher pils or Maaza soursop guanabana juice? The choice is yours.
27 min: Ecuador pass and probe, without too much forward energy. Perhaps they’re waiting for the hydration break.
25 min: Raum crosses from the left. Havertz rises highest and heads goalwards … but straight at Galindez. The first time Germany have shown in attack for a while.
24 min: Hincapie hares into the box from the left, preparing to shoot, but Sane tracks back to toe-poke the ball away from the Ecuadorian. Almost as big a contribution as his goal.
23 min: Franco is causing Germany all sorts of bother down the right. First a cross that’s only just headed clear by Kimmich. (A claim for handball, as the ball grazes his arm, but no.) Then a cutback that evades all yellow shirts. If he gets one of these deliveries right, Germany will be in all sorts.
22 min: Angulo delivers. Neuer punches clear to the halfway line. Ecuador are the better side at the moment.
21 min: Plata makes good ground down the right but his cross isn’t all that and Germany clear their lines. But Ecuador come again, Angulo and Hincapie combining down the left to win a corner. From which …
19 min: Hincapie looks to have got the better of Kimmich down the left, but the whistle goes. Both players had a handful of shirt, and the defender usually gets the benefit of the 50-50 tussle, so. The crowd not happy, pt II in a continuing series.
18 min: Ecuador’s response to conceding early has been excellent. They’re going toe-to-toe with Germany here, having perhaps flipped into devil-may-care mode upon being forced to stare into the abyss.
16 min: According to the BBC, Germany have now conceded in nine consecutive World Cup finals games, equalling a run set between 1934 and 1954. That stat’s worth the licence fee all on its own. I bet they’ve not been told that on ZDF or ARD.
14 min: Nmecha strides down the inside-right channel and whips a low drive across Galindez and inches wide of the bottom-left corner. This game is great fun. It surely won’t end 1-1. Meanwhile here’s a word from MBM fashion correspondent Charles Antaki: “We’ve seen some terrific kits in this World Cup, but if we’re giving out prizes for beachwear, then Germany are going to be way, way out in front. If a kit isn’t aesthetically pleasing then at least it might be assertive and red-blooded – but this dark green/mint combo is about as intimidating as something off the Man at C&A summer sale rack.”
13 min: Kimmich floats a ball into the Ecuadorian box, and the livewire Wirtz nearly gets on the end of it. Pacho takes charge, with his keeper on walkabout, and heads clear, just in time.
12 min: Plata nicks the ball off the dilly-dallying Kimmich, and sends Yeboah away down the right. He enters the box with nobody near him, but the referee blows up for a soft free kick. Ecuador not getting the benefit of the decisions during these early exchanges.
11 min: That was a heck of a finish, and through Pavlovic’s legs to boot. Not the best challenge by Pavlovic, and Nmecha’s lazy touch was costly, so Germany were partly to blame for their own downfall, but take nothing away from that strike. What a way for Ecuador to open their 2026 World Cup account!
GOAL! Ecuador 1-1 Germany (Angulo 9)
Ecuador string a few passes together for the first time. Then they lose the ball. Then Vite snaffles it back immediately, Nmecha taking a heavy touch and Angulo tears off down the inside-left channel. He opens his body, just before the edge of the box, and unleashes a powerful low curler into the bottom right! The net billows! The crowd explode!
7 min: Ecuador are rocking, and they fail to deal with another long pass down the middle. Wirtz picks up possession again and has a whack that’s blocked immediately.
5 min: Ordonez catches Musiala late, and is fortunate to escape a booking for standing on his opponent’s foot.
4 min: That’s a bit of a controversial one, because Pavlovic’s boot was head-high, and might have gently scratched Vite’s noggin. VAR doesn’t get involved, and the referee isn’t minded to change hers. Ecuador furious.
GOAL! Ecuador 0-1 Germany (Sane 2)
A throw comes in from the left. Pavlovic juggles the ball over Vite’s head. Wirtz takes possession of the dropping ball, takes a quick touch before rolling across for Sane, who passes confidently into the bottom left. Lovely assist and finish!
2 min: A simple long ball nearly releases Wirtz down the left. Wirtz shifts the ball infield, but there’s too many defenders in the way and the ball’s cleared out for a throw. From which …
Germany get the ball rolling. It’s an away match for them, and not just in bureaucratic terms. There are an estimated 55,000 Ecuador supporters in this stadium tonight!
The teams are out at the New York New Jersey Stadium! The home of the Jets and the Giants (ordered that way to put the Guardian US sports editor in a good humour). It’s hot, but not quite as hot as it’s been in London today. Strange times. We’ll be off once Ecuador captain Moisés Caicedo has handed over that lovely pennant to his opposite number Joshua Kimmich.
Pre-match postbag. “Writing from Ecuador, I can say people are understandably disappointed with how the World Cup has gone so far. After finishing second in qualifying, there was a feeling that this group could achieve something, but we were ignoring the unequal distribution of talent in the team: in the back, you have Pacho, who has won two Champions League titles, and Hincapie, who won the Bundesliga and the Premier League, and in the middle, you have Moises Caicedo. Up front, we still have 36-year-old Enner Valencia, who couldn’t really do it at Everton 10 years ago. There’s an exciting generation of Ecuadorian strikers, including the 16-year-old twins currently at Arsenal, but they’re not yet ready. The country was hoping Germany would field their second string of players for this match; turns out they didn’t. On another note, many attribute Ecuador’s success in qualifying to Quito’s altitude, but this overlooks the fact that most of Ecuador’s players come from abroad, so they also have to adjust to the altitude. Also, under the current coach, Ecuador started playing home games in Guayaquil, which is at sea level” – Matthew Carpenter-Arevalo
“As well as some underdogs have performed this World Cup there hasn’t really been a big upset victory. Maybe today will be the day for that and if it happens, there would be no better occasion than Ecuador in front of a crowd which is likely to be majority Ecuadorean due to the huge population living in New York and surrounding region” – John in New York
“It would be good to have a bit of Ecuadorian bomba in case they, erm, bomb out of the competition tonight” – Charles Antaki
“Germany’s number 26 deserves to start. Undav story” – Peter Oh (who else?)
For those Scotland supporters clinging onto hope – and what’s the point of sport if you can’t keep dreaming? – there’s plenty riding on this game (and the other one in Group E) tonight. Providing neither Ecuador nor Curaçao win, the third-place finisher in this group cannot equal Scotland’s three-point haul. So that’d be one down, three to go for the Scots in their quest to keep their heads above water. But if Ecuador win, they’d be on four points, while if that happens and Curaçao beat Côte d’Ivoire, Curaçao would need to prevail by four goals to damage the African side’s goal difference to the extent required to banish them below Scotland in the third-place table. Erm. That it’s come to this for Steve Clarke and his men.
Ecuador being the designated home team, Germany will sport their navy away kit tonight. They could legitimately have run out in their famous white shirts, but the right thing has been done by colourblind fans: white v pastel is problematic, while blue v yellow is a good combination for people with colour blindness. The flecks on the shirt are mint, as is, in a manner of speaking, that lovely black tracky top.
Ecuador’s match pennant is a thing of genuine beauty. Full disclosure: there was another photo on the wires with a better angle of it, but it cropped out the heads of the subjects in the framed picture, which seemed kind of wrong, so giving due respect to the artist Luigi Crosio, the Refugium Peccatorum Madonna and the baby Jesus, I’m going with this one instead.
Ecuador make two changes to their starting XI after the goalless draw with Curaçao. Joel Ordóñez comes into the defence while Nilson Angulo joins the attack. Pervis Estupiñán and Jordy Alcívar drop to the bench.
Germany also make two changes, but both of those are enforced. Central defender Nico Schlotterbeck is out of the World Cup after suffering ligament damage, while left-back Nathaniel Brown has an adductor problem and isn’t risked. Antonio Rüdiger and David Raum take their places. Three-goal supersub Deniz Undav starts on the bench again.
The teams
Ecuador: Galindez, Franco, Ordonez, Pacho, Hincapie, Yeboah, Vite, Moises Caicedo, Angulo, Plata, Enner Valencia.
Subs: Ramirez, Valle, Torres, Alcivar, Estupinan, Anthony Valencia, Paez, Rodriguez, Minda, Jordy Caicedo, Preciado, Castillo, Arevalo, Porozo, Medina.
Germany: Neuer, Kimmich, Rudiger, Tah, Raum, Nmecha, Pavlovic, Sane, Musiala, Wirtz, Havertz.
Subs: Baumann, Nubel, Anton, Goretzka, Leweling, Woltemade, Gross, Beier, Stiller, Amiri, Thiaw, Ouedraogo, Undav.
Referee: Tori Penso (USA).
… and now here’s Ecuador’s contribution to the story so far. It doesn’t amount to much.
Here’s how Germany have done so far. That Livano Comenencia equaliser seems an awfully long time ago now.
Friends reunited. Reacquaint yourself with old pals from both squads.
Preamble
Group D comes to its conclusion tonight. The maths are simple. Germany have already won the group so can free-associate as much as they please. Ecuador need to win to progress, because should they end up in third spot, two points simply won’t suffice. Let’s face it, most eyes are on this match to further gauge Germany’s likelihood of winning their fifth World Cup: an outside chance or something a little bit stronger? Kick-off is at 9pm BST, 4pm EDT, 6am AEST. It’s on!
