Ivory Coast needed a miracle and got one at the death. Amad Diallo, on the pitch for barely a minute, turned in a Wilfried Singo cross at the 90th to snatch a 1-0 victory over Ecuador in Group E's Monday-night fixture at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. For much of the evening, Ecuador had been the better-organised side. In the end, it did not matter.
The statistics tell a story of Ecuadorian dominance that the scoreline refuses to confirm. Beccacece's side finished with 55 per cent possession, 87 per cent passing accuracy from 285 attempts, and six shots, five of which were struck from outside the box. None of them troubled Yahia Fofana, who was not required to make a single save. That detail, more than any other, explains how Ecuador lost: they had the ball, they had territory, and they produced nothing dangerous enough to threaten the goalkeeper.
Ivory Coast, by contrast, were compact and cautious under Emerse Fae's 4-4-2. They managed just 233 passes at 83 per cent accuracy and registered only one shot on target across 90-odd minutes. Their expected-goals figure of 0.73 flatters them somewhat, though Elye Wahi offered occasional menace in the channels. Nicolas Pépé, restored to a first-team setting at this level, contributed flickers without ever imposing himself. Three yellow cards, collected by Guéla Doué, Franck Kessié and Seko Fofana, pointed to a side working hard and sometimes desperately to stay level.
Ecuador's best route to goal ran through Moisés Caicedo in the middle of the park. The midfielder circulated possession smartly and pressed with intensity, but the final ball was repeatedly absent. Enner Valencia, for all his totemic status within Ecuadorian football, found himself isolated from service that mattered. Gonzalo Plata flickered on the right, John Yeboah offered width on the other side, but Ecuador's three-man attack never found the combination to unlock a defence that, for all its industry, was there for the taking.
Pedro Vite and Piero Hincapié carried the ball forward from deeper positions with composure, yet neither could supply the decisive moment. Willian Pacho and Alan Franco were solid enough behind them. Hernán Galíndez made the one save he was asked for, which underlines just how little Ivory Coast threatened until the moment they didn't have to.
That moment arrived in the 90th minute. Singo drove forward from the left of defence and delivered a cross that Diallo, freshly introduced, turned into the net. A normal goal, registered in the data as such, but the circumstances were anything but. One touch, one moment, three points.
Group E now has an interesting shape. Germany, having beaten Curaçao 7-1 in the group's opening match, sit top with three points. Ivory Coast, after this win, move onto three points as well, though with a considerably inferior goal difference. Ecuador sit with nothing after deserving more. That is the particular cruelty of a game where possession and patterns mean very little if the ball does not cross the line.
For Ivory Coast, the result is a lifeboat. They were the inferior team in almost every measurable respect and leave Philadelphia with maximum points. Ecuador, who played the cleaner football, are left to reflect on six shots without a single one troubling the goalkeeper. Beccacece's side will have more to offer in their remaining fixtures, but they must now win, and that changes everything about how their group campaign unfolds.