Oman vs Ecuador Predictions

Tuesday’s international friendly action sees Oman doing battle with Ecuador at the Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha. With both teams looking to bounce back from disappointing results last time out, plenty of action is expected at both ends of the field.

For Oman, a 1-1 draw with 114th ranked Philippines has to be regarded as a disappointing result and Pim Verbeek’s troops will be looking for an improved performance on Tuesday, irrespective of the fact they opponent they now face is undoubtedly of a stronger calibre.

Overall, 2018 has been a strong year for Omani football however, and The Reds can be pleased with the work they’ve put in. The side managed to lift the Gulf Cup crown back in January, as well as booking their place in next year’s Asian Cup, for which they’re trying to build momentum for via these friendly games. However, having now drawn 3 consecutive friendly matches in a row, it’s clear for all to see that said target isn’t really being met at the moment.

Meanwhile, Ecuador will be looking for significant improvement from their showing against Qatar on Friday, in which they completely lost their collective heads, losing 4-3 and being reduced to 9 men. The South Americans had gone into said match as comfortable favourites but produced a performance lacking the maturity needed at international level.

Ecuador pulled off something of a coup following the World Cup, which they failed to qualify for after finishing 8th in CONMEBOL qualification, by bringing back Hernan Dario Gomez as boss for a second stint after his historic work with Panama. Gomez had kicked off his reign in excellent fashion in the last international break, beating both Jamaica and Guatemala and will be demanding his team return to winning ways here in a match they’re expected to win.

Ultimately, whilst Ecuador certainly look a class above Oman on paper, La Tri have had an unpredictable nature about them for several years now and their showings have typically been very erratic.

As such, whilst we do expected them to win the game, we feel far better value can be found in backing both nets being hit. Ecuador’s squad is far more stacked in attacking areas than defensive, as shown in their aforementioned clash with Qatar and with 4 of their last 6 fixtures having seen goals at both ends, it looks an excellent way to play. Oman are likely to bring an aggressive game plan themselves but they look somewhat short of the quality Ecuador possess and for that reason, we fancy the South Americans to run out 2-1 winners.