2022 World Cup Qualifications – Amsud Zone: Brazil hooked by Ecuador ten against ten (1-1)

It was laborious, but Brazil managed to keep their invincibility in these qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in the Amsud zone. For this meeting of the fifteenth day, the Seleção clung to the point of the draw against Ecuador (1-1). In a boiling atmosphere, the five-time world champions led for a long time but Tite’s collective suffered in the last minutes of a game that the two teams played ten against ten for more than 80 minutes! Finally, the good accounting operation is for Ecuador, third, which temporarily took seven points ahead of its main pursuers, Colombia and Peru. Already qualified, Brazil still saw defeat very closely.

Alisson, saved twice by the VAR

If the start of the match may have looked like a nightmare scenario for Ecuador, it was not the case in the following events. Warned at the very start of the match, Emerson Royal collected a second yellow card synonymous with expulsion for a foul on Michael Estrada (21st), leaving the two teams ten against ten. The tempo did not come down, however, since Alisson Becker was first sent off in turn by Wilmar Roldan, before the Colombian referee decided to use VAR to cancel the penalty but confirm the Ecuadorian free kick . Behind, Pervis Estupinan tried his luck without success (26th).

If the Canarinha tried to make a difference through Cunha (45th), Casemiro (50th) or Alex Sandro (73rd), it was the locals, and in particular the excellent Gonzalo Plata, who put their opponents to death. First, Pervis Estupinan sent shivers down the spine of Brazil with a penalty finally refused by the VAR, then Plata offered on a plateau the equalizer to Félix Torres, author of an overpowered header to beat Alisson (75th, 1-1).

At the very end of the match, the referee whistled a new penalty for Ecuador following a rough exit from the Liverpool goalkeeper on Ayrton Preciado… Sent off a second time, Alisson again saw the sanction canceled after use of video. With ten minutes of stoppage time in each period, this game was like no other. And at the end of the suspense, Brazil resisted.