Côte d’Ivoire and Ecuador named their starting lineups before the World Cup 2026 match, which kicked off at 7pm ET (12am BST, 9am AEST).
Côte d’Ivoire’s XI read Yahia Fofana; Ghislain Konan; Wilfried Singo; Guéla Doué; Emmanuel Agbadou; Seko Fofana; Franck Kessié (captain); Yan Diomande; Elye Wahi; Nicolas Pépé; and Bazoumana Toure. The team was listed with Kessié wearing the armband, and a late fitness note flagged defender Evan N’Dicke with a hamstring issue ahead of kickoff.
Ecuador’s starters were Hernan Galindez in goal with a back line of Piero Hincapie, Joel Ordonez and Willian Pacho; midfielders Alan Minda, Pedro Vite, Alan Franco and Moises Caicedo; and an attack of John Yeboah, Enner Valencia (captain) and Gonzalo Plata.
The match began in 90 degrees Fahrenheit heat. The live coverage highlighted one striking statistic: Côte d’Ivoire had conceded zero goals across 10 World Cup qualifiers. That defensive record was presented as context for the kickoff; within the opening phase the live updates noted the Ivorians had started to slow after a high-paced opening and had already given the ball away in a sloppy sequence.
This was a pre-match confirmation rather than a final report: the lineups were published through FIFA’s lineup information and carried into live blog updates. The immediate questions left open by the squad lists are concrete — chiefly whether N’Dicke’s hamstring issue would alter the back line’s availability and whether the team’s unbroken goals-against record would withstand the match conditions and the early signs of a drop in tempo.
