Captain Valencia sent off as Venezuela come from behind to beat Ecuador
The flashpoint in question came in the 19th minute when 17-year-old Kendry Páez played a wonderful one-two with Piero Hincapié before forcing Rafael Romo into a fine save.
However, on the follow-up, in his attempt to make contact with the ball, Valencia wildly kicked José Martínez in the chest instead, with the colour of the card changing from yellow to red after Colombian referee Wilmar Roldán had reviewed the VAR footage.
As expected, Venezuela grew more into the contest immediately after that decision, but their only massive chance before the break came when Yeferson Soteldo’s corner was flicked on by skipper Salomón Rondón towards Yordan Osorio, who was denied at close range by Ecuador goalkeeper Alexander Domínguez.
Not long after that moment, Páez fluffed his lines at the other end, but the teenager soon played a huge role in getting Ecuador in front on 40 minutes as his clipped free-kick into the box was cleared by Osorio, but only as far as the lively Jeremy Sarmiento, who pounced on the loose ball to fire brilliantly into Romo’s bottom left-hand corner from 15 yards out.
At half time, Venezuela manager Fernando Batista sent on Jhonder Cádiz and Eduard Bello for Darwin Machís and Cristian Cásseres. As a result, La Vintotinto enjoyed a stronger start to the second half than they did the first, but that improvement wasn’t initially showing up on the scoresheet, and they had Romo to thank for an extremely smart reflex stop to keep out Moisés Caicedo’s deflected strike.
However, the double change did pay off on 64 minutes as Pacho’s rushed clearance led Bello to take a quick throw-in, and after Rondón had laid the ball off to Cádiz, the 28-year-old found the net for his first-ever international goal via a deflection off Félix Torres.
And the match turned on its head 10 minutes later as Alexander González’s cross was headed on target by Rondón. Domínguez parried that effort, but Bello was alert to nip in front of Pacho and finish with aplomb.
The win was Venezuela’s first in six games and will provide a huge boost to the team ahead of their next encounter in Group B against Mexico on Wednesday, while Ecuador must quickly regroup, albeit probably without Valencia, as they prepare to face Jamaica earlier that day.
Flashscore Man of the March: Eduard Bello (Venezuela)