In order to beat Senegal on Tuesday and advance to the knockout round, Ecuador coach Gustavo Alfaro has challenged his team to play the best World Cup in the nation’s history.
The South American team, who defeated Qatar 2-0 in the tournament opener and outplayed the Dutch on Friday to draw 1-1 with them, will guarantee their spot in the round of 16 if they can avoid defeat against the African champions in the last round of Group A games.
Progressing out of the group would equal Ecuador’s best-ever World Cup performance from 2006, when they first advanced to the knockout round before losing to England.
“I’m convinced we’ve done everything we can, we’ve done our homework, hopefully tomorrow we will be strong and fortunate enough against Senegal, who are a great team, and hopefully we will go through, because we deserve it,” Alfaro told reporters on Monday.
Against Senegal, who are rated 26 places higher than them, Alfaro stated his team should prepare for their hardest encounter yet.
“We respect the pecking order, but we don’t need to be fearful. We remain calm but that doesn’t mean we are overconfident, we are not triumphalist,” he said.
“We have our own way of playing, we are not just thinking of getting a draw. We have to come to the pitch trying to win the game … We are creating our own pathway. We want to progress, we want to seal our passage, we want to play the best World Cup in Ecuadorean history.”
Enner Valencia’s health, who was carried off late in the Netherlands tie with a recurrence of a knee issue, is a concern for the South Americans. The 33-year-old attacker has added to his three goals from Brazil in 2014 by scoring all three of Ecuador’s goals in Qatar.
To advance to the round of 16, Senegal will almost definitely need to defeat Ecuador at the Khalifa International Stadium.
After falling to the Dutch 2-0, the team led by coach Aliou Cisse defeated Qatar 3-1 on Friday to maintain their hopes of moving on.
Theoretically, they might still advance to the knockout round with a draw, but that result would depend on the hosts Qatar defeating the Netherlands, who are tied for first place in Group A with Ecuador.
As the best team in Africa, Cisse’s team is anticipated to advance from the group, but he also noted that his men were handling the pressure well.
Senegal, who made their World Cup debut in 2002 and advanced to the quarterfinals, was knocked out in the group stage in Russia four years ago on the basis of fair play points.
