Ecuador will play this Tuesday (12:00) the pass to the round of 16 of Qatar-2022 in a ‘final’ against Senegal, a match in which the Tri will add a point, with the opportunity to match their best result in World Cups.
After the first two days played, Ecuador and the Netherlands add 4 points for the 3 of Senegal. The hostess Qatar, without scoring, has already been eliminated, so the accounts are clear: “We win or we go home“, summarized this Monday at a press conference the Senegalese coach Aliou Cisse.
“We cannot change our idiosyncrasy, Ecuador has a way of playing and in our mind it is going to win the match, not go out for the tie“, the Ecuador coach replied shortly after, Gustavo Alfaro.
“If we go out to tie, we will lose prominence and this team needs to be the protagonist”, added the ‘Lettuce’ who faces the game with three doubts, although the most important is knowing whether or not he will be able to count on the scorer Enner Valenciawith knee discomfort since the initial match against Qatar.
– Earrings of Valencia –
“He has a sprain, but he did not compromise the ligaments or the menisci. We will try to recover it so that it can bebe it from the start or later when we need it”.
Alfaro, however, wanted to be optimistic: “In the same way that he has a sprain, he also has his heart painted by the ‘Tri’. The leadership of our captain is essential, I would always choose him for my team“.
Also read: Ecuador draws with the Netherlands and condemns the hosts Qatar
In the afternoon, Valencia participated together with his teammates in the training session, at least the first 15 minutes open to journalists, so everything indicates that he will be able to play.
The Fenerbahçe striker could, at 33, set a mark without equal in the history of the World Cups: scoring seven consecutive goals in the tournament. author of three goals in Brazil-2014 and of the three in Qatar-2022 (Ecuador did not qualify for Russia-2018), Valencia equaled, with his goal against the Netherlands, the record for the most goals scored consecutively in the World Cup, which he shares with the Portuguese eusebio (1966), Italian Paolo Rossi (1982) and Russian Oleg Salenko (1994).
Know more: Cissé: “I come from a country that does not accept defeat”
Another of the questions that Alfaro has to resolve is who will replace jehgson mendez, penalized for accumulating yellow cards, in the midfield, accompanying Moisés Caicedo. His replacement should be Carlos Gruezo, who was a starter before the World Cup, and who is also one of the most experienced players in the young ‘Tri’ squad, first for regularly playing in one of the most important championships (Augsburg, in the Bundesliga) and then for being one of the three players, along with Valencia and substitute goalkeeper Alexander Domínguez, who were already in Brazil-2014.
– Defense of 4 or 5? –
The third question will be the tactical approach: 4-3-3 as against Qatar or 5-3-2 as against the Netherlands.
Senegal, For his part, he has managed to recover from the blow suffered by the absence due to injury of his star Sadio Mané and also reacted to the final defeat against the Netherlands in their debut (2-0).
It has players with experience in the major European leagues, such as goalkeeper Edward Mendy (Chelsea) and the captain Kalidou Koulibaly (Napoli), and stands out above all for its physical strengthalso a characteristic of Ecuador, so the match at the Khalifa International Stadium could become a battle in which physicality prevails over talent.
