Football Fever Cup Edition: All Whites face Belgium in do-or-die clash

Let's look at today's action at the FIFA World Cup.

Three more groups are now complete, groups D, E, and F.

Group E was the first to play out today, Ecuador against Germany in New Jersey.

Ecuador 2, Germany 1.

Leroy Sane's clinical finish giving Germany the lead after just two minutes, but Nilson Angulo equalized seven minutes later with a low drive past the ageless Manuel Neuer.

So Germany, when that goal went in, have now failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their last nine World Cup games.

It's their joint longest run at World Cups.

Their last clean sheet was in the 2014 World Cup final against Argentina.

And worse was to come when Gonzalo Plata put Ecuador ahead from close range after 77 minutes.

They held on to win 2-1.

This was just the second time that Ecuador have won a game at the FIFA World Cup in which they have trailed.

The last one, a 2-1 win also over Honduras back in 2014.

Honduras, a very different kettle of fish from Germany.

And since the start of the 1998 World Cup, just the second time Germany have lost a game in which they opened the scoring.

The only other time since 1998, a 2-1 loss to Japan in 2022.

So Ecuador will qualify for the last 32 as one of the highest placed third teams in groups, and they'll be a pretty tough opponent.

They've lost just one of their last 22 matches in all competitions.

Germany still top the group.

They will play a third-placed qualifier in the round of 32.

The other game in this group, Côte d'Ivoire 2, Curaçao 0 in Philadelphia.

Nicolas Pepe scoring twice to secure second place for Ivory Coast or Côte d'Ivoire, the first time they have reached the knockout stages.

They will face [laughs] I don't know who you want, either France or Norway in the round of 32.

So you either gotta face Kylian Mbappé or Erling Haaland.

I'm not sure which is the, uh, is the better proposition.

Curaçao are eliminated from their debut World Cup, securing one point from their three games.