Ecuador’s veteran striker Enner Valencia scored twice as the South American side beat hosts Qatar 2-0 in the opening match of World Cup on Sunday.
Felix Sanchez’s men have been together in camp for the last six months to prepare for the tournament and work on tactics, but a nervous and disjointed performance led to a Group A loss.
Qatar, seeking to avoid being the first World Cup hosts to lose an opening game, looked shaky despite months of preparations.
South Africa have been the only hosts not to make it out of the group in 2010, but Qatar could follow as the second with two difficult games left to play.
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Goalkeeper Saad Alsheeb typified their nerves, tripping Valencia for the penalty and earlier flapping at a ball in a melee that enabled the striker to head into the net in the third minute only to see his effort disallowed for offside.
Star men Almoez Ali and captain Hassan al-Haydos were both substituted with 20 minutes remaining, and the side were unable to muster a shot on target.
Many fans who had left the stadium at the break did not come back, leaving it about half empty for the majority of the second half.
Ecuador, meanwhile, have set themselves up in a superb position to progress, extending their excellent recent form to one defeat in 16 games and keeping a clean sheet in their last seven.
They were clearly the better side and had the ball in the back of the net after 160 seconds, but Valencia’s close-range header was ruled for offside by VAR.
There was some debate as to why the goal was disallowed, but Michael Estrada was in an offside position when Felix Torres first challenged the goalkeeper.
Ecuador dominated Qatar, whose goalie Al Sheeb was especially unsteady and fouled Valencia, who calmly converted the penalty.
Abdelkarim Hassan, a defender for Qatar, pushed up and fired their first shot in anger, but it was horribly missed. Qatar barely had a chance.
While Pedro Miguel headed wide in the second half, star player Ali, who scored nine goals in the Asian Cup victory, struggled to get into the game.
