Ecuador U20 women defeated Ghana U20 women 3-0 in their opening Group Stage match at the FIFA U20 Women's World Cup on Saturday at Arena Sosnowiec. The result puts the hosts top of the table with three points from one game, while Ghana sit fourth with none.
R. Flores broke the deadlock in the fourth minute, and D. Arboleda doubled the lead just before half-time with a seventeenth-minute strike. She added a third in the seventy-first, and that was enough to close the game out against a side that had more of the ball.
By then Ghana had made four changes, bringing on E. Yiadom, P. Asante, A. Yeboah and K. Mendoza all at once in the forty-sixth minute. They also tried to change things with substitutions for I. Osei in the seventy-ninth and M. Guerra in stoppage time, but Ecuador held firm.
And here's the thing — Ghana dominated possession at 56 per cent and registered 106 attacks compared to Ecuador's 81, yet they only managed three shots on target to Ecuador's four. Their accuracy sat at 14 per cent, while the hosts converted 36 per cent of their attempts.
Ecuador went forward with purpose. They had six shots off target and four on target, plus two corners. Ghana, meanwhile, had twelve shots off target and only three on target, along with seven corners and six blocked shots.
A. Mogro picked up a yellow card in the forty-seventh minute for Ecuador before being replaced in the sixty-third. The hosts remain unbeaten after one match, while Ghana's opening defeat leaves them needing a response in their next fixture.