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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Mathew Davies

Thousands of fans leave World Cup opening game early in depressing scenes

Thousands of fans left the opening game of the World Cup between Qatar and Ecuador early on Sunday.

The hosts were soundly beaten 2-0 by the South Americans, with two goals from Enner Valencia enough to see off the country making its bow in the tournament.

Anticipation had been building around the competition curtain-raiser, which was not without its teething problems at the Al Bayt Stadium.

A capacity crowd of 67,372 was announced in the second half but thousands of supporters had already left their seats by then, no doubt disappointed with the scoreline from a Qatari perspective.

It all looked a bit grim for the opening game of a World Cup. Indeed journalists reported many did not return to their seats at half-time, with Ecuador already two goals to the good.

Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer discussed the issue post-match in the BBC studio.

"This is an hour into the game," said Shearer. "There were so many, and so many leaving as well. They just never really came back into the stadium and not in the numbers that were there ahead of the game."

Pundit Alex Scott added:"It really didn't help how flat the second half was, no real entertainment or excitement."

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