Panama vs Ecuador Predictions

Ecuador ended 2017 in terrible fashion with four consecutive defeats but have looked a much more formidable team in 2018, despite only playing their first game of the year in September.

Los Amarillos have played five games so far, winning three and getting a draw and a loss in the other two matches. These weren’t against the most prestigious of opponents but the 2-0 win in Peru really sticks out amongst these results. Goals came from both of the Valencias, Enner and Antonio, and Ecuador really dug in for this result as they only had 37% of the possession. Peru really pressured them for much of the match, so it says a lot that Ecuador managed to score twice and keep a clean sheet.

Ecuador will be disappointed that they couldn’t beat Qatar though. The 2022 World Cup hosts have been under a lot of scrutiny off the pitch, but they were on fire on it. Almoez Ali ripped up the generally solid Ecuadorian defence, four clean sheets in five games in 2018, by scoring twice. Ecuador seemed pretty stunned by the attacking play of Qatar and even though they pushed for the result late on, they couldn’t get a final goal and the game finished 4-3 to the hosts. Ecuador weren’t helped by finishing the game with nine men though.

Only nine places split Ecuador from Panama in the world rankings but the hosts here haven’t been in scintillating form as of late.

There was a lot of buzz in Panama after their World Cup qualification which allowed them to compete in Russia, but they don’t have a lot to show for this achievement as they are winless in their last nine matches. Norway, Tunisia and Honduras have all beaten them with relative ease and their only respectable result of the last few months was a goalless draw at home to Northern Ireland.

They have only scored twice in their last four games, losing three of them, and their stars like Aníbal Godoy and Alberto Quintero have been pretty quiet on the international front. The whole team have taken the foot right off the pedal since the World Cup qualification and it has been very evident through their recent results. Ecuador aren’t an amazing team but are in solid form and should easily beat this Panama side.

Panama only lost one of their 11 home matches in 2017 but have lost two and drawn one in their most recent three games at the Estadio Rommel Fernandez Gutierrez. Ecuador aren’t a great side away from home with them losing nine of their last 13 games on foreign soil, but they have improved as of late with a win and a draw in their most recent affairs. Ecuador usually have the upper hand in this game with them winning three of the last four meetings with Panama. They have usually been low scoring games though and with four of Ecuador’s five games this year seeing under 2.5 goals, we expect that to continue. Panama haven’t won since April while Ecuador have been pretty good recently so we’re going to back a 2-0 win for Los Amarillos.