{"id":43521,"date":"2026-06-25T23:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/43521\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T23:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:10:08","slug":"ecuador-edge-germany-2-1-to-squeeze-into-world-cup-last-32-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/43521\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecuador edge Germany 2-1 to squeeze into World Cup last 32 | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"World<\/a><\/p>\n

Germany finish top of Group E, with Ivory Coast second and Ecuador will have a chance of qualifying on third place.<\/p>\n

Published On 25 Jun 202625 Jun 2026<\/p>\n

Ecuador have kept their World Cup campaign alive as Gonzalo Plata\u2019s winner completed a memorable come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Germany to send the South American nation through to the last 32.<\/p>\n

Leroy Sane controversially fired Germany ahead less than two minutes into the Group E clash on Thursday, but Ecuador hit back through a fine strike from Sunderland winger Nilson Angulo.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Plata then prodded home from close range 13 minutes from time, prompting wild celebrations on Thursday among a largely Ecuadorian crowd in New Jersey as the South Americans ensured they would advance as one of the eight best third-placed teams.<\/p>\n

Germany will travel to Foxborough for their last-32 tie against another third-placed finisher on Monday, in their first World Cup knockout match since lifting the trophy in 2014.<\/p>\n

Julian Nagelsmann made two injury-enforced changes, with Antonio Rudiger replacing Nico Schlotterbeck after the Borussia Dortmund defender was ruled out of the World Cup with ankle ligament damage.<\/p>\n

David Raum came in for Nathaniel Brown at left-back, but Nagelsmann resisted the temptation to start Deniz Undav despite his heroics off the bench against Ivory Coast when he scored both goals in the 2-1 win<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Germany, with top spot in the group already assured, took the lead in a manner that enraged an Ecuador side fighting to stay in the tournament after picking up just one point in their first two games.<\/p>\n

\"EcuadorianEcuadorian fans display a giant national flag after winning the 2026 World Cup Group E football match between Ecuador and Germany at the New York\/New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford on June 25, 2026 [Charly Triballeau\/AFP]<\/p>\n

Sane swept in a first-time shot from Florian Wirtz\u2019s lay-off in the area, but Ecuador were incensed that a foul was not given earlier in the move, when Aleksandar Pavlovic caught Pedro Vite in the head with a high boot.<\/p>\n

The decision to let the goal stand led to a furious reaction from Ecuador, who levelled seven minutes later as Angulo drilled low past Manuel Neuer from 20 yards after Felix Nmecha lost possession in his own half.<\/p>\n

Kai Havertz tested Hernan Galindez with a header and then thought he had won a penalty less than 30 seconds after half-time when Joel Ordonez upended the Arsenal striker in the box.<\/p>\n

VAR intervened on this occasion, to Ecuador\u2019s evident relief, and the spot-kick was overturned after a foul by Sane on Vite in the build-up.<\/p>\n

Nagelsmann turned to Undav on the hour, Germany\u2019s super-sub with three goals so far at the tournament, but Ecuador knew they had to throw caution to the wind.<\/p>\n

Enner Valencia\u2019s fierce effort was beaten away by Neuer, before a defensive mix-up nearly opened the door for Ecuador.<\/p>\n

Confusion between Neuer and Jonathan Tah almost let Kevin Rodriguez sneak in, and Plata steered wide from the follow-up cross delivered by Moises Caicedo.<\/p>\n

Sane had a glorious chance to put Germany back on top but shot tamely at Galindez, and Ecuador made the most of that escape as Plata rode to the rescue.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez flicked on a corner, and Plata stabbed home from right in front of Neuer to end Germany\u2019s 11-match winning run and book Ecuador\u2019s place in the knockout stage for only the second time, provoking tears of joy from their fans in the stands.<\/p>\n

\"SoccerEcuador players celebrate after the match [Caean Couto\/Reuters]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Germany finish top of Group E, with Ivory Coast second and Ecuador will have a chance of qualifying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[149,5,97,7856,150],"class_list":["post-43521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-football","tag-germany","tag-sport","tag-us-canada","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}