Ecuador will welcome Venezuela to the Estadio Rodrigo Paz Delgado in Quito for Friday's 2026 World Cup qualifier.
La Tri are sitting in third place in the standings with 19 points to their name, while La Vinotinto are seven points further back in eighth position.
Match preview
Ecuador have played six of their 12 World Cup qualifiers under the watch of Sebastian Beccacece, who took over the reins last August after Felix Sanchez left his role following the country's quarter-final exit from the 2024 Copa America
After beginning his reign with a 1-0 defeat to Brazil, Beccacece has seen his team put together a five-game unbeaten run, beginning with a narrow win over Peru and consecutive goalless draws against Paraguay and Uruguay.
La Tri went on to claim a commanding 4-0 victory over Bolivia, before they edged out Colombia via a 1-0 scoreline thanks to an early Enner Valencia effort, leaving them in third place despite having to contend with a three-point deduction for using false information to obtain Bryan Castillo an Ecuadorian passport in the last World Cup cycle.
Beccacece will be particularly pleased that his side have recorded five consecutive clean sheets since Brazil's Rodrygo scored against them in September.
Ecuador are on course to qualify for back-to-back World Cup finals, although Beccacece will be warning his side against complacency ahead of the next two matches against Venezuela and Chile.
La Tri have tended to struggle in recent games against Venezuela, having won just one of their previous seven head-to-head meetings (D4, L2).
Venezuela are sitting in eighth place after winning two, drawing six and losing four of their 12 matches in the current World Cup qualifying cycle.
La Vinotinto failed to win each of their last eight qualifiers (D5, L3) since claiming a 3-0 home win over Chile in October 2023.
Incidentally, Chile were the last team Venezuela faced in 2024, giving up the lead on two occasions as they fell to a 4-2 defeat, extending their winless away run to 15 matches in World Cup qualifying (D13, L2).
As a result, Venezuela are still searching for their first World Cup qualifying away win since recording a 1-0 victory over Paraguay in October 2017.
Fernando Batista's side begin the current round of qualifying fixtures with a one-point gap to Inter-confederation playoffs and a five-point deficit to the top six, leaving them with work to do if they are to reach their first-ever World Cup finals.
They can at least take confidence from the fact they claimed a 2-1 win over Ecuador when the two sides last met in the 2024 Copa America group stage.
Team News
Ecuador have been unable to call up the injured quartet of Jhoanner Chavez, Angelo Preciado, Alan Minda and Leonardo Campana.
Bayer Leverkusen's Piero Hincapie is suspended for Friday's contest after being shown a straight red card in November's 1-0 win over Colombia.
Valencia will skipper his country against Venezuela, with the experienced forward just five matches away from reaching 100 international appearances.
As for the visitors, they are without the defensive duo of Yordan Osorio and Miguel Navarro, who have both been ruled out with injury issues.
Wilker Angel and Jon Aramburu will serve one-match bans after picking up two bookings in Venezuela's qualifying campaign.
Venezuela's all-time leading goalscorer Solomon Rondon will lead the line, with the striker looking to add to his 45-goal international tally.
Ecuador possible starting lineup:
Galindez; Ordonez, Pacho, Torres, Estupinan; Yeboah, Caicedo, Franco, Vite, Plate; Valencia
Venezuela possible starting lineup:
Romo; Gonzalez, Angel, Ramirez, Rivas; Herrera, Martinez; Soteldo, Savarino, Segovia; Rondon
We say: Ecuador 2-1 Venezuela
Venezuela may have got the better of Ecuador in last year's Copa America, but that contest took place in a neutral venue in the United States.
Their opponents will have home advantage for Friday's contest, and we think that could be crucial given the fact the visitors have lost 13 of their last 15 away qualifiers.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
body check tags ::
Previews by email
