Netherlands vs Ecuador World Cup 2022 live: Score and latest updates

Who is doing well and who is just muddling through?

Ecuador have been the better team for the past 20 minutes and came close to an equaliser on a handful of occasions before finally putting the ball past Noppert. The Dutch look very exposed down the right side of their defence with Dumfries pushed so high but Van Gaalm reckons what you lose on the swings, you gain on the roundabouts as Dumfries' runs are causing Ecuador problems. 

Porozo was offside and in the line of Noppert's sight when Estupinan's left-foot flick from 12 yards, diverting a shot, thundered in at the right post. Ecuador protest but you can see the linesman and Var's point. Porozo didn't touch it but he was so close to Noppert, the keeper couldn't see the ball never mind reach it. 

Ecuador free-kick, 40 yards out on the left. Estupinan whips it into the box, the ball bending away from goal perfectly to meet Valencia's running leap. He makes good contact but the Dutch defend it at the cost of a corner. 

Great pass from Mendez to put Estupinan in down the left but he is diligently tracked by Van Dijk who blocks the cross at point-blank range.

The fourth official signals three minutes of stoppage time. 

Plata runs in to the back of Timber and demands a free-kick when his head hits the defender's shoulder but the ref rightly waves play on. 

Valencia and Dumfries wrestle as they await an Ecuador throw-in. The ref stops the game to wag his finger at them. Wesley Sneijder appears on the screen during the break in play, and then Edgar Davids. 

Hincapie brings down Bergwijn who falls heavily and puts out his hand, the one with the bandaged writs, to break his fall. He winces but eventually seems all right. 

Caicedo trips Klaassen and then tries to stop him taking a quick free-kick. He was booked against Qatar, so doesn't need another one. Fortunately the ref gives him a pass but he was dicing with a suspension there. He needs to screw the nut or he would miss out on the crucial match against Senegal.  

Most of the games in this World Cup have had Sven-Goran Eriksen in reverse syndrome: "First half not so good, second half good." This one has been highly entertaining so far. 

Ecuador have been the better side for the past 10 minutes and almost break through when Valencca, like Gakpo, works a bit of space to the left of the D and puts his laces through a shot. Noppert, who makes Edwin Van der Sar look like Ronnie Corbett, hurls himself to his right to turn it behind.  

Netherlands corner precipitates a bout of shoving in the box but Ecuador defend it stoutly and De Jong has to shepherd it all the way back to Noppert to thwart a lightning raid. 

Ecuador are flying now. They come down the left again, Estupinan sliding Valencia in behind Timber. He whips a left-footed daisycutter through the box, Estrada backheels it with a lovely touch but it doesn't quite come of, forcing Preciado wide and his angled shot is blocked out for a corner. 

Ecuador's corner is a bust. It doesn't get up and the first Oranje defensive sentry wallops it clear. 

At last Ecuador get in behind by thrusting high up the right before switching it to the left for Caicedo to take to the byline and pick out Plata with his poke-back. But he is smothered with a block tackle as he tries to get his shot off. 

Then he gets back in again and Gakpo hacks it away. Now Estupinan brings it back down the left and whips over a cross to the far post, isolating Noppert. Van Dijk, facing his own goal but unruffled, gets his head under it to steer it away from goalwith a flick of the neck. 

Estrada can hold the ball up well but Ecuador are not hitting him early and often enough. De Jong and Koopmeiners are proving difficult to pass through. Ecuador may have to go over the top.

Dumfries bullocks past three men and is brought down by a tug on his shirt from Estupinan. Torres wellies the ball and it hits the falling Dumfries flush in the face. But the referee waves play on and, after he sees that Dumfries is hurt, stops play but restarts with an uncontested bounce-up. 

Ecuador defend the first throw-in at the price of another and cut that one out when Dumfries hurls it infield. 

As Clive Tyldesley points out, Gakpo is right-footed and his left is his swinger. Some chicken, some neck etc. At times Timber drops in at right-back in a back four and Dumfries is pushed very high as a right winger. In which position, he earns a throw-in parallel with the 18-yard line. 

Koopmeiners makes a run down the right, linking up with Dumfries, to work the ball into the centre but Hincapie makes a vital block and launches a counter with Valencia up the left. De Jong diligently tracks him all the way until his defenders snuff out the counter. 

Ecuador work the free-kick to the right for Plata to cross deep into the box. Van Dijk gets up ahead of Valencia to win the header. 

Ecuador are a little rattled by the early goal and have misplaced a couple of tackles but now have a chance to regroup with a free-kick following Timber's foul on Valencia. 

Leeds United fans have been given several hints by their owner Andrea Radrizzani that they will go back in for Cody Gakpo in January. They won't be able to afford/seduce him at this rate. 

Netherlands 1 Ecuador 0 (Gakpo) The PSV forward scores with a wonderful left-foot shot that is hit with such power it only bends in a bit but enough to whistle inside the left post. He was helped by Klaassen playing high as an inside-left, occupying Porozo before laying it off to his left from an Ake diago

nal to feet. 

Preciado takes a blow to the goolies and receives pointless treatment. Time heals ball wounds. B'dum tish. I'm here all week. 

Very patient so far from the Dutch until Van Dijk, having received the ball back 30 seconds after losing it by chipping it up the middle, goes for a diagonal to the right but spears it out for a Ecuador throw. 

Ecuador, in blue, kick off and knock it long. Netherlands easily win the ball and start to build patiently from the back with Van Dijk in the middle of the three. 

And singing their national anthems lustily. Ecuador fans certainly the loudest. The Dutch national anthem always seems festive to me, so fairly appropriate. Ecuador's is one for marching to and perfect for outbursts of patriotic fervour. 

Sparked a Fifa disciplinary investigation for singing 'eff off Chile' during the Qatar game, vexed that Chile tried to have them slung out of the club for a player registration irregularity. They also sang 'we want beer' but they haven't been fined for that ... yet.

After Enner Valencia scored twice in the 2-0 defeat of Qatar on Sunday, his club, Fenerbahce, rather amusingly did this:

He was very good against Senegal but the story of the 28-year-old, who has played fewer than 50 league games over the past 12 years, is extraordinary. He is 6ft 8in and 'enjoyed' a spell in Serie B with Foggia whose fans stole his car after one defeat and, he says, he had to pay the local mafia to get it back. 

Van Gaal consistently backs his hunches because he is usually right, sometimes wrong, but always certain. 

Good afternoon and welcome to live coverage of the Group A game between Netherlands and Ecuador who start the match, following Senegal's victory over Qatar on three points alongside the Lions of Teranga. 

The teams have already been announced, and here they are:

Netherlands  Noppert; Timber, Van Dijk, Ake; Dumfries, Koopmeiners, Frenkie de Jong, Blind; Klaassen, Gakpo, Bergwijn.
Substitutes  Pasveer, de Ligt, de Vrij, Luuk de Jong, Depay, Berghuis, Lang, Bijlow, de Roon, Malacia, Janssen, Weghorst, Taylor, Simons, Frimpong. 

Ecuador Galindez; Angelo Preciado, Porozo, Torres, Hincapie, Estupinan; Plata, Mendez, Caicedo, Valencia, Estrada.
Substitutes  Arboleda, Cifuentes, Pacho, Gruezo, Ayrton Preciado, Ibarra, Ramirez, Arreaga, Mena, Sarmiento, Palacios, Franco, Dominguez, Reasco, Rodriguez.

So De Ligt, Berghuis and Janssen drop down to the bench for the Dutch with Jurrien Timber, Davy Klaassen and Teun Koopmeiners coming in. Ecuador make one change, Jackson Porozzo, a defender, coming in for the midfielder Romario Ibarra, suggesting a switch to a back three or five after their opening day victory over the hosts.

The two sides have only met in friendlies before, the Dutch winning in Amsterdam 1-0 in 2006 and holding them 1-1 there eight years later. Louis van Gaal had a nice surprise yesterday at his pre-match press conference when a Senegalese reporter told the Dutchman he was a longtime admirer.

"I don't have any question for you. It's just an opportunity to tell you I'm a fan since I was three years old," Papa Mahmoud Gueye said. "I love you."

The 71-year-old Iron Tulip, sometimes viewed as a stern-faced, taciturn and obdurate figure in soccer, broke into a huge smile before responding.

"I'm going to give you a big hug after this, because I like that you say this and I mean that seriously," Van Gaal said through an interpreter. "Because people don't often say this to me. So we'll give each other a big hug afterward."

Van Gaal kept his word, moving down from the stage and beckoning the reporter with his hand to join him in a warm embrace.

The 28-year-old Gueye works for Senegalese publication Taggat.sn.

Gueye told the Associated Press it was an honor to share such a touching moment with Van Gaal. "He's one of the greatest figures in football," Gueye said. "He was also happy to see that there are people who love him, and he said to me 'Let's give each other a hug."'

Gueye said Van Gaal has earned an unfair reputation over the years as being grumpy.

"That's not really the case. From a distance people generally think that's he's not cool," Gueye said. "But he's a smiley character and he laughs with everyone. And he's one of the best coaches in the world."