Amad Diallo's Late Goal Ends Ecuador's Unbeaten Streak

Ecuador arrived with a streak and a swagger. Nineteen games without defeat, Moisés Caicedo anchoring the midfield, and a sense that this was a team that had forgotten how to lose.

For 89 minutes, that belief looked justified.

Caicedo, stationed in the heart of Ecuador’s midfield, set the tone from the start. He hunted the ball high, snapped into tackles, and turned defence into attack in an instant. One of those trademark interventions sparked the move that should have broken the deadlock: he won it back aggressively, Ecuador poured forward, and Alan Minda crashed a shot against the crossbar when he ought to have scored.

That was Ecuador’s first warning shot. It wasn’t the last.

John Yeboah had already rattled the frame of the goal, cutting inside and letting fly as Ecuador repeatedly stretched Ivory Coast in the first half. Every time they broke, they looked like they might land the punch that would preserve that unbeaten record for another night.

Ivory Coast never folded. They absorbed pressure, rode their luck, and kept a threat simmering on the counter. After the interval, they reminded Ecuador they were in a real fight.

Elye Wahi found his moment early in the second half. A sharp move opened a sliver of space, the forward shaped his body and guided a shot beyond the goalkeeper – only to see it cannon back off the bar. One end to the other, woodwork shaking, margins razor-thin.

The game tightened. Legs tired, spaces shrank, and the rhythm broke into patches of scrappy midfield duels, the kind Caicedo relishes. Ecuador still carried more of the initiative, still looked the likelier to nick it, but the final pass deserted them when it mattered most.

So the clock crept towards 90. A goalless draw felt inevitable, the kind of respectable stalemate both sides could live with: Ecuador’s unbeaten run intact, Ivory Coast with a solid result against one of the form teams in international football.

Then Wilfried Singo decided he’d had enough of caution.

The right-back surged down the flank with purpose, brushing aside challenges as he powered into space. Ecuador’s back line retreated, just a fraction too deep, just a fraction too slow to shut down the danger. Singo picked his head up and picked out Amad Diallo.

Diallo didn’t hesitate. One touch, one glance, one deft, first-time finish steered into the bottom corner. Precision over power. Silence for Ecuador, an eruption for Ivory Coast.

Ninety minutes on the clock. Streak over.

Ecuador’s 19-game unbeaten run ended with a single, ruthless moment, carved out by a full-back on the charge and a winger with the calm of a seasoned finisher. For Caicedo and his teammates, it was a harsh reminder: dominate all you like, miss your chances, and football rarely forgives.

There is no time to dwell. Curacao await next weekend, bruised themselves after a 7-1 defeat to Germany earlier on Sunday. Ecuador will be expected to respond, to turn frustration into edge, and to prove that this was a stumble, not the start of a slide.