- La Tri beat Colombia 1-0 as a visitor in Barranquilla, on Date 12 of the South American Qualifiers.
- Ecuador reached 19 points in the qualifiers towards the FIFA World Cup – United States, Mexico and Canada 2026.
The Ecuadorian team resisted Colombia's siege in Barranquilla this Tuesday and took three gold points from the Metropolitan stadium with a 1-0 victory, thanks to a goal from Enner Valencia, on matchday 12 of the South American Qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.
The team led by Sebastián Beccacece resisted the rival attack with one less player for more than 60 minutes, due to the expulsion of center back Piero Hincapié, and with an outstanding performance by goalkeeper Hernán Galíndez, whose saves prevented the hosts from celebrating.
La Tri began to put intense pressure on the hosts to come out and that was how they managed to open the scoring at 7' with Valencia's goal.
The team recovered the ball by taking advantage of a starting error by midfielder Richard Ríos and it reached Enner Valencia, who drove at full speed, got rid of several rivals and entered the area to take a cross shot that was impossible for Camilo Vargas to stop.
– Party Numbers –
- Ecuador has recorded three unbeaten away games in the current South American Qualifiers (0-0 vs. Venezuela, 0-0 vs. Uruguay and 1-0 vs. Colombia). It is the highest number of clean sheets away from home for La Tri in a single edition of the tournament. In addition, they have accumulated eight matches without conceding goals in general in this edition of the South American Qualifiers, surpassing what was achieved in the tournament towards South Korea – Japan 2002 (7).
- Ecuador beat Colombia as a visitor in the South American Qualifiers for the first time since a similar result (1-0) in 1965. In that period they played nine times in coffee territory, with three draws and six losses.
- Ecuador won against Colombia with just four shots, the fewest number by a team in a victory in the last four editions of the South American Qualifiers, along with Peru in January 2022, also in a 1-0 against Colombia.
- Hernán Galíndez made seven saves in the victory against Colombia. Only three goalkeepers made more saves to maintain an undefeated record in the last four editions of the South American Qualifiers: Carlos Lampe in October 2017 against Brazil (11), Guillermo Viscarra against Colombia in 2024 (9) and Antony Silva against Argentina in 2021 ( 8).
- Enner Valencia scored his 13th goal for Ecuador in the Qualifiers, ranking as La Tri's third top scorer in the tournament, behind Felipe Caicedo (15) and Agustín Delgado (16). It was his first goal against Colombia in the tournament.
CONMEBOL.com / EFE / OPTA
