Enner Valencia continues to have a standout performance at the 2022 World Cup for Ecuador after bagging his third goal of the tournament, to rescue a crucial point against the Netherlands in a 1-1 draw in their second Group A fixture on Friday.
Valencia who was the hero in Ecuador’s 2-0 win over the host nation Qatar in Sunday’s opener, having scored both goals, returned on Friday to rescue his team from defeat with another.
The Ecuadorian captain scored in minute 49 to cancel out Cody Gakpo’s 6th minute opener for the Netherlands as they battled to a hard-fought drawn result which sees the two share a point after the 90 minutes.
Valencia now leads the race for the Golden Boot race with three goals from two games with Gakpo also among the contenders with his second goal of the Cup.
The result now sees both teams competitively jostling for top honors in the group as they both share identical records of four points after two games played with a goal average of two goals each.
That deadlock will however be forced broken in their finals group fixture on Tuesday.
Ecuador is set to play Senegal in their game, while the Netherlands face the out-of-contention Qatar who was eliminated by Senegal after losing their second game on Friday.
