Diallo scores late, gives Ivory Coast opening World Cup win over Ecuador

Côte d'Ivoire spent most of the match living dangerously, then Amad Diallo changed everything with one late touch. In a Group E opener that had already featured three Ecuador efforts off the woodwork and one Ivory Coast strike against the bar, Diallo came off the bench and steered a 90th-minute finish inside the post for a 1-0 victory at Philadelphia Stadium.

The winner arrived after a strong run and cross from Wilfried Singo, with Diallo meeting the moment from the edge of the box and ending a game that had swung on inches. Ecuador had threatened through Enner Valencia, John Yeboah, Alan Minda, Moisés Caicedo, Gonzalo Plata and Hernán Galíndez, but the final touch belonged to Côte d'Ivoire, which found the decisive break after the match had looked close to escaping both sides.

The loss ended Ecuador’s 19-game unbeaten run and left the South American side on zero points from its opening match. Côte d'Ivoire took three points from its first game of the tournament, a result that carried extra weight because it was the country’s first World Cup appearance in a dozen years, since 2014.

For Côte d'Ivoire, the timing mattered as much as the scoreline. A match that had seemed poised to be decided by missed chances and hard luck instead shifted in the last minute, giving Emerse Fae’s side an early lead in Group E and a lift that can travel with a national team through a short tournament. With Germany and Curaçao also in the group, the table now gives Côte d'Ivoire immediate control of its path.

The next fixtures raise the stakes even further. Côte d'Ivoire faces Germany on June 20, 2026, in what already shapes up as a crucial test of the group leader’s momentum. Ecuador, meanwhile, must regroup quickly for its meeting with Curaçao on June 21, 2026, after a defeat that came one heartbeat from being a point and instead became a setback that could echo through the rest of the group stage.