Sebastian Beccacece rued what he labelled as an “unfair defeat” after his Ecuador team went down 1-0 to Ivory Coast.
Amad Diallo scored in the 90th minute in Philadelphia to seal victory for Ivory Coast in Group E.
There had been 27 shots (15 for Ivory Coast, 12 for Ecuador) in the contest, with the woodwork struck on four occasions.
Ecuador became the fourth team to hit the woodwork three times and lose in a World Cup match (since 1966), after the United States v Iran (1998), Brazil v Argentina (1990) and Italy v Brazil (1978).
And though their 1.01 expected goals (xG) suggests they did not create many quality chances, Beccacece felt Ecuador did enough to take the points.
“It hurts because it was an unfair defeat,” Beccacece told reporters.
“I think there are very strong arguments to clearly show that the team competed very well, had the clearest chances and could have won the match, but because of one detail at the end, we leave with nothing.”
4 – Piero Hincapié was dribbled past four times against Côte d’Ivoire, the most by a defender in a 2026 FIFA World Cup match so far.
Hincapié was only dribbled past 19 times in 39 appearances for Arsenal in 2025-26 (0.62 per 90).
Assignment. pic.twitter.com/2Jdad5kezR
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 15, 2026
This result marked the first time that CONMEBOL teams have failed to win any of their first three matches in a World Cup since 1974 (D1 L2), with Paraguay and Ecuador losing, while Brazil could only draw.
African teams, on the other hand, have gone unbeaten in three consecutive World Cup games against South American opponents for the first time in the tournament’s history, following the 1-0 win for Cameroon against Brazil in Qatar 2022 and Morocco’s 1-1 draw against Brazil on Saturday.
In fact, Ivory Coast defeated a South American team for the first time in a World Cup, ending a run of three losses (2006 v Argentina, 2010 v Brazil and 2014 v Colombia).
Ivory Coast named their youngest starting XI for a World Cup match since their encounter with Serbia in 2006, with an average age of 26 years and 111 days compared to 26 years and 33 days in that previous fixture.
“It’s the first World Cup for all 26 players, a first outing for them, so it was difficult, there was some doubt, there was some fear,” said Ivory Coast coach Emerse Fae.
“In the second half, we took more risks, were more concentrated, made fewer individual mistakes.
“Plus, we have great attacking players, like Yan, like Amad, and they were able to get more on the ball, push Ecuador back.
“We respected Ecuador very much in the first half, but over time we grew more confident, and then we managed to hurt them.”
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