Ecuador, with its best performance after the road to Korea-Japan 2002, with four days remaining in the current World Cup qualifiers

The 54.8% performance of Ecuador in the qualifying round for Qatar 2022, with four rounds remaining, It is the best achieved by the National Team after the one that resulted from the road to Korea-Japan 2002 (57.4%), World Cup that managed to be classified as an unprecedented event.

After beating Chile (0-2) on Tuesday night, the Tricolor reached 23 points (+10 goal difference) in the South American qualifier, product of seven wins, two draws and five losses in fourteen appearances.

Heading for the 2002 World Cup, Ecuador achieved nine wins, four draws and five falls, which meant a performance of 57.4%. Those 31 points were enough for the national team to access the World Cup for the first time in its history.

Heading for Germany 2006 and Brazil 2014, the Tri posted a performance of 51.9% and 52.1%, respectively, thus qualifying for both appointments. On their way to the World Cup fifteen years ago, the Ecuadorians celebrated eight victories, tied four times and lost six games: 28 points. While for the tournament seven years ago the balance was seven wins, four draws and five losses.

Considering only the qualifiers that are played with the current format of all against all in South America, Ecuador did not go to France 1998 for its performance of 43.8% in 16 games, to South Africa 2010 for 42.6% in 18 and to Russia 2018 for 37% in 18.

Historically, for a South American team to access at least the World Cup playoffs it must accumulate 24 points, as happened with Uruguay facing South Africa 2010; However, there were teams that were left without an opportunity despite equaling or exceeding that figure (Peru, with 25 in 1998; Colombia, with 27 in 2002 and with 24 in 2006; Chile, with 26, and Paraguay, with 24 in 2018) . (D)