Conmebol Qualifiers: Wilmar Roldan steals the show in Ecuador's draw vs Brazil
With no Neymar to help them, Brazil barely managed to get a draw at Ecuador in the first Conmebol World Cup Qualfier for the Qatar 2022 World Cup. This is the final stretch before the massive tournament takes place in December of this year. Just as it tends to happen in these types of games from South America, the Ecuador vs Brasil match was an all out war. In fact, there were far more fouls than usual that got Emerson and Alexander Dominguez. But the biggest protagonist of the game was referee Wilmar Roldan, who showed Alisson Becker the red card twice and retracted his decision twice due to VAR. This had never occured in professional football before, Alisson only finished the game after over 100 minutes with a yellow card.
No joke, the first half of this game seemed far more like a UFC fight than a football match with so many flying kicks. We have no idea how the ref didn't show more than the two legal red cards he did. Only 5 minutesinto the game, Casemiro drew first blood but he taunted Ecuador for a blood bath. Goalie Alexander Dominguez saw the red card 10 minutes later due to a criminal challenge that nearly took Cunha's head off. Emerson was also sent off only five minutes after that. It was clear that Ecuador wasn't going to allow defeat in Quito this evening. But at what cost?
Torres brings Ecuador closer to Qatar.
Amid all the reckless challenges, 'Tite' decided to protect the 0-1 result but the Ecuadorian side refused to give up. They did everything in their power to score that goal that would grant them one more step towards the World Cup dream. Felix Torres was the man of the hour with 15 minutes left on the clock and a heroic header for Ecuador's equalizer. There was still time for Wilmar Roldan to attempt another failed red card to Alisson that VAR overturned it for the second time in the game. With this result, the locals remained strong in third place with 24 points and Brazil are still undefeated in this World Cup Qualifying campaign.
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