{"id":738845,"date":"2026-06-15T22:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T22:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/738845\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T22:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T22:11:09","slug":"amad-diallo-scores-90th-minute-winner-as-cote-divoire-leave-it-late-to-sink-ecuador-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/738845\/","title":{"rendered":"Amad Diallo scores 90th-minute winner as C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire leave it late to sink Ecuador | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire\u2019s 1-0 victory against Ecuador showed their World Cup<\/a> ambitions are genuine, the side\u2019s manager Emerse Fa\u00e9 said, after Amad Diallo\u2019s 90th-minute goal secured a winning start to their campaign on Sunday at the Philadelphia Stadium.<\/p>\n

The Ivorians have impressed since booking their place at the finals in the US, Canada and Mexico, beating South Korea and Scotland in March and winning 2-1 away against France last week.<\/p>\n

Fae\u2019s youthful attack, including the highly rated 19\u2011year\u2011old winger Yan Diomande, was tested by an experienced Ecuador<\/a> defence featuring Paris Saint-Germain\u2019s Willian Pacho \u200cand Arsenal\u2019s Piero Hincapi\u00e9, \u200cshielded by the Chelsea midfielder Mois\u00e9s Caicedo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came to the US for this, and we came here \u200cwith ambitions, with high hopes,\u201d Fae told reporters. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to just have visited the US and have to go back, so everything is going well for now.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve beaten France. We are starting this competition well against Ecuador, a very tough team, but we managed to come into our own and won the match. This shows that our team has acquitted \u200citself well.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n

Ecuador\u2019s Piero Hincapi\u00e9 goes down in dramatic fashion as he battles for the ball with C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire\u2019s Gu\u00e9la Dou\u00e9. Photograph: Petr David Josek\/AP<\/p>\n

With the four-time champions Germany favourites in Group E, this match could prove decisive in the battle for second place. C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire are appearing at the World Cup finals for the first time since 2014 and have never reached the knockout stages.<\/p>\n

Diallo\u2019s first-time finish from Wilfried Singo\u2019s cross gave the Ivorians their first World Cup victory against South American opposition and halted Ecuador\u2019s unbeaten run at 19 matches. It also put a bow on the RB Leipzig star Diomande\u2019s dazzling performance as the Elephants pulled level on points with a Germany side that thumped Cura\u00e7ao 7-1<\/a> in their opener in the group\u2019s earlier game.<\/p>\n

A packed Philadephia Stadium hosts C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire v Ecuador. Photograph: Darrian Traynor\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Ivorians, who have the youngest squad at this World Cup finals tournament, looked to be running out of ideas before Singo found space surging up the right from his defensive post. His cross reached Diallo in stride, with the 23\u2011year\u2011old Manchester United player deftly guiding \u200cit into the bottom left \u200ccorner to give the West Africans a dream start \u200cto their first World Cup finals appearance since 2014.<\/p>\n

Ecuador\u2019s best first-half chances came from C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire\u2019s casual defending. John Yeboah and Alan Minda struck the bar in the 23rd and 30th minutes respectively. But it was C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire who looked better in possession, with Diomande terrorising Ecuador\u2019s left side.<\/p>\n

In a match played within driving distance of more than 600,000 Ecuadorian Americans estimated to live in New York and New Jersey, La Tricolor fans brought the atmosphere but left disappointed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire\u2019s 1-0 victory against Ecuador showed their World Cup ambitions are genuine, the side\u2019s manager Emerse Fa\u00e9…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-738845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}