Switzerland saved their best for the last minute of the match as they scored the winning goal virtually with the last kick of the match and hand Ecuador a painful 2-1 defeat in the opening match of their FIFA 2014 World Cup campaign.
The first match of Group E began excitingly with both the teams trying to take an early advantage. But lack of precision denied both the teams any clear sniff of goal in the early stages of the match. The first goal came in the 23rd minute of the match as Ennar Valencia put the Ecuadorians in the lead with a perfect header. As it approached half time Switzerland slowly tried to make a comeback into the match by taking control of the midfield although they failed to score the equalizer.
The second half began in an exciting fashion. Admir Mehmadi came in as a substitute for the Swiss in place of Valentin Stocker. And he turned out to be the super sub as he brought Switzerland on level terms with Ecuador within 3 minutes of the restart. Throughout the rest of the second half the match turned out to be an intriguing one as the ball travelled from one end to the other very frequently. Just when it looked like that we are going to have the first draw of this edition of the FIFA World Cup, Switzerland earned the all important winner in the 3rd minute of stoppage time. The Swiss defenders made use of Arroyo’s missed opportunity in front of the ball to put the ball into Ecuador’s half with a long lob. Rodriguez paced through the left wing and floated in a perfectly measured cross which was converted into a goal by Seferovic, another substitute.
The Swiss earned a very important win as they still have France and Honduras to play against. Also it’s always great to have a win in the first match of any tournament and the Swiss did just that. Ecuador on the other hand will be looking back to that missed chance by Arroyo and think that it could have been much different.
Tags: Brazil world cup FIFA 2014 FIFA worldcup 2014 world cup
