2002 World Cup - Ecuador 2 Peru 1

Ecuador continued their reasonable early progress in 2002 World Cup qualifying by beating Peru 2-1 in Quito.

The Ecuador team has never made it to the World Cup finals before but they are in good form at the moment with a year left of qualifying matches. The win over Peru saw them reach six points from the first four matches.

A rough pitch and high altitude conditions at the Atahualpa stadium did not make for good passing and hard running but the Ecuador team took the lead in the 16th minute when Alex Aguinaga sent a high pass into the path of Clever Chala behind Peru's defence and the striker hit a fierce shot past Oscar Ibanez.

Eduardo Hurtado scored the second with a low finish from close range in the 41st minute and Peru made a game of it in the second half after Juan Pajuelo scored on the turn to set up a period of pressure from Peru and some weak defending by Ecuador.

Peru sent striker Ysrael Zuniga clear in the last fifteen minutes three times but he could not get a shot on target.