Amad Diallo Ends Ecuador's Unbeaten Streak

Amad Diallo shatters Ecuador’s 19-game unbeaten run at the death

Ecuador arrived with a streak and a swagger. Nineteen games without defeat, Moisés Caicedo anchoring the midfield, and a side that has quietly turned resilience into a habit since September 2024.

For 89 minutes, it looked like that habit would hold.

Caicedo, stationed in central midfield, set the tone early. He hunted the ball high up the pitch, snapping into tackles and turning regains into instant threat. One trademark challenge sparked Ecuador’s best opening of the first half, launching a move that ended with Alan Minda crashing an effort against the crossbar when he really should have scored.

Before that, John Yeboah had already rattled the frame of the goal. Ecuador weren’t just edging it; they were imposing themselves, moving the ball with purpose and striking with intent from wide areas. The woodwork, twice, kept Ivory Coast alive.

The Africans were never passive, though. They carried their own menace, especially in transition, and after the break they answered Ecuador’s warning shots with one of their own. Elye Wahi found a yard of space and whipped a strike that thundered off the bar early in the second half, a reminder that this contest was always one mistake or one moment of quality from tilting either way.

The game tightened. Legs tired, spaces shrank, and the clock dragged towards a goalless conclusion that neither attack truly deserved. Ecuador continued to probe, Ivory Coast waited for the gap that might never come.

Then it did.

Ninety minutes on the clock, Ivory Coast right-back Wilfried Singo decided he’d had enough of caution. He surged down the right flank with a powerful, surging run, brushing aside challenges and driving his team up the pitch. His cut-back found Amad Diallo, who didn’t hesitate. One touch, first time, guided and precise, rolled into the bottom corner.

Cruel on Ecuador. Clinical from Diallo.

The goal, so late and so measured, snapped Ecuador’s 19-game unbeaten run in an instant. All that durability, all those months without defeat, undone by a single composed finish at the end of a full-blooded contest.

Now the streak is gone, the response becomes the story. Next up is Curaçao, beaten 7-1 by Germany earlier on Sunday. For Caicedo and Ecuador, it’s no longer about protecting a record. It’s about proving this defeat is a stumble, not the start of a slide.