Ecuador made history on Thursday evening by beating Germany to reach the World Cup 2026 knockout stage at the New York New Jersey Stadium. A popular pre-tournament dark horse, La Tri's World Cup campaign was not going to having failed to score a single goal in their opening two games.
Leroy Sane had fired Germany, who were already qualified as group winners, into an early lead, before Nilson Angulo soon had Ecuador level after nine minutes. Germany had a penalty at the start of the second half overturned following a VAR review for a foul in the build-up before Gonzalo Plata stabbed in the winner with 13 minutes left to leave the South Americans on four points and top of the third-place rankings.
Ecuador’s victory further dents Scotland’s hopes of making it through to the last 32. Steve Clarke’s side – who have three points and a minus three goal difference – now drop down into the final eighth spot, but with other groups still to finish.. Follow Ecuador vs Germany LIVE below with our dedicated match blog.
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Ecuador 2-1 Germany
Ecuador 2-1 Germany
90+6 min: Plata wins a foul deep in the Germany half, can’t imagine the ball will be going into the box with seconds left on the clock.
Ecuador 2-1 Germany
90+5 min: Turn and shot from Gross at the edge of the box, but he can’t keep his effort down. Ecuador will not care as more precious seconds are eaten up. The Germany pressure continues.
Ecuador 2-1 Germany
90+3 min: Undav holds off a challenge and fires a shot into the side-netting from an acute angle.
Ecuador 2-1 Germany
90 min: Desperate defending by Ecuador but they finally get the ball clear, but they mess up a counter attack chance.
SEVEN MINUTES OF STOPPAGE TIME.
Ecuador 2-1 Germany
89 min: Raum gets a second bite at the cherry after his initial set-piece is cleared away. More great defending from the resulting corner before Plata is booked for a naughty tackle on Musiala.
Another Germany set-piece, in a dangerous position.
Ecuador 1-1 Germany
85 min: Yeboah and Angulo are replaced by J.Caicedo and Torres. What a shift from the Ecuador pair.
Ecuador 2-1 Germany
83 min: Ecuador are not exactly sitting on this 2-1 lead as they are pushing forward with numbers at every opportunity.
GOAL! Ecuador 2-1 Germany | Gonzalo Plata ‘78
78 min: ECUADOR IN FRONT!
Would you believe it, from the resulting corner Ecuador take the lead. Flick on by Kevin Rodriguez and Gonzalo Plata gets his boot to the ball before Manuel Neuer.
Ecuador 1-1 Germany
76 min: That may have been the game right there. Wonderful centre-forward play from Undav to set Sane free but he shoots straight at Galindez.
At the other end, Rodriguez uses his body well in the box but sees his effort deflected behind for a corner.