Inner Valencia, the goal scorer in middle After the controversies and conjecture, a football was finally kicked in the Qatar World Cup, 12 years on from being named as hosts. A day that began with real excitement with the opening ceremony, Qatar's dream turned into a nightmare as they became the first hosts in the competition's history to lose their opening game. The Asian champions, a tournament they won back in 2019, offered no threat in the final third and were unable to test Ecuador goalkeeper Hernan Galindez once. South Africa have been the only hosts not to make it out of the group in 2010, but Qatar could follow as the second with two difficult games left to play. Ecuador, meanwhile, have set themselves up in a superb position to progress, extending their excellent recent form to one defeat in 16 games and keeping a clean sheet in their last seven. They were clearly the better side and had the ball in the back of the net after 160 seconds, but Valencia's close rang...