So we bring down the curtains on this live blog. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did bringing it to you. Tomorrow we will be back. Join us then. Till then take care and ta, ta!

A STAT before the tweets: Qatar become the first World Cup hosts to ever lose their opening game.

So the World Cup has kicked off and tomorrow we have three games coming up. Before we sign off, we will leave you with a couple of tweets.

Enner Valencia the star for Ecuador with his double. He now has 5 World Cup goals and is their country's top goalscorer ever in this mega tournament. After a tight offside call ruled out his opening goal, he won and converted the penalty and then powered a thumping header which made it 2-0. After that he took a knock on his right knee and then was substituted in the 2nd half. He was seen having an icepack on his knee but with a couple of days to recover, he should be fine. Qatar did not have anything to show for as the opening game did not live up to any sort of expectation

Full-time! Ecuador 2 Qatar 0. Ecuador ease to victory. A real cruise for them. Qatar never posed a threat and did not have a shot on target with Muntari's strike which landed on the roof their best effort. Can't remember any other World Cup debutants having such a poor game. Ecuador did not even hit third or fourth gear and they comfortably outclassed their opponents

Interesting nugget on Kevin Rodriguez: He plays in the second division in Ecuador for Imbabura and impressed coach Gustavo Alfaro and recently made his debut against Iraq. Now he is on for his first World Cup minutes. What a story!

Couple of subs for Ecuador - Michael Estrada off, Kevin Rodriguez on. Moises Caicedo off, Alan Franco on

Five minutes of added time! That is a surprise

Qatar may have put in a performance to forget but Mohammed Muntari almost pulls one back running on to a long pass played from his centre-back and then shooting just over. He wanted to catch the Ecuadorian keeper out but the ball lands on the roof of the net and not between the posts as he would've hoped for

Just under 6 minutes of regular time. Not sure Orsato will add more minutes as this is increasingly drudge stuff for everyone. Even Ecuador will hope for the game to end soon 

YELLOW CARD! Akram Afif goes in to Orsato's book as he is shown the yellow card for a clumsy challenge on Plata

Enner Valencia is again down and he is now being substituted off. Cifuentes comes on in his place

Afif tries a long-range effort from 25 yards out and it flies over. Nothing working for Qatar

Lots of niggly fouls as Qatar are yet to have a shot on target. To be honest, they haven't looked like getting one. Far from it

Double substitution for Qatar: Mohammed Muntari and Mohammed Waad replace captain Hassan Al Haydos and Almoez Ali

Jeremy Sarmiento replaces Romario Ibarra for Ecuador. He is the third Brighton player in this team after Moises Caicedo and Pervis Estupinan

STAT: This game has the most cards (five yellows) in a World Cup opener since Germany versus Bolivia in 1994 (six yellow cards and one red card).

Preciado was down injured for a moment but gets back up and is ready to continue. Lots of the locals have already left the stadium

Second half has gotten underway and Qatar look a bit better as they string together possession a couple of times

That half was all about Ecuador and Enner Valencia. Apart from his two goals, he had a goal rightly disallowed for a very tight offside and then had a player booked. There was an injury worry for him when he took a knock on his right knee, but the half-time break should help him recover. That was some half from the Ecuadorian talisman

Half-time! Ecuador 2 Qatar 0: Ecuador have dominated the hosts and deservedly lead 2-0 thanks to Enner Valencia's double. Qatar have looked out of depth, horrible and have not had any possession or passes to show for.

What a chance at the end of the half for Qatar but the header goes wide. Almoez Ali was unmarked but he could not direct his header towards goal. Glorious chance for Qatar who had nothing to show for it in that half apart from that moment

Five minutes of added time due to injuries and VAR.

Injury worry for Enner Valencia after he looks to have hyper-extended his right knee while challenging Boudiaf, A stretcher comes out but he gets up and walks off gingerly. With the half-time break approaching, the medical staff will see what the extent of the injury is

Loud cheers when Qatar get the ball forward but it all comes to nothing as possession is lost.

STAT: Enner Valencia is 33 and is the oldest goalscorer in a World Cup opening game.

STAT: Enner Valencia is the first player to score five goals in a row for a South American nation at the World Cup.

The local crowd are shell-shocked while the Ecuadorians are jumping around in joy. That was a bad tackle but Valencia gingerly gets up and there is a slight break in play as the players cool off.

YELLOW CARD! Another Qatari goes into the book now. A crunching tackle from Karim Boudiaf who is booked for a foul on Valencia.

GOAL! Ecuador 2 Qatar 0 - Enner Valencia (31st minute). Caicedo from the right delivers a floating ball and Valencia out-jumps everyone and powers a header that flies into the bottom left corner beating the dive of the goalkeeper. Long way back for Qatar now who honestly are being played off the park currently

Qatar look overawed and out of their depth. A second goal is just a matter of time surely!

YELLOW CARD! Qatar are all at sea as waves of Ecuadorian attacks come one after the other. Their Striker Almoez Ali is their second player booked for catching Enner Valencia.

GOAL! Ecuador 1 Qatar 0 - Enner Valencia (16th minute). Enner Valencia brings up his 4th World Cup goal by cooly slotting in the penalty sending Saad Al Sheeb the wrong way. Valencia went to the bottom right corner and just passed it in. Also Saad Al Sheeb has been booked for that challenge which led to the penalty

PENALTY! To Ecuador. Again the goalkeeper Saad Al Sheeb is at fault here, gets Enner Valencia who was trying to round him to score into an empty net. The referee immediately pointed to the spot.

Qatar showing their nerves on the big stage. Their goalkeeper Saad Al Sheeb has had a bad start. He was very lucky that the goal was chalked off for offside and that was a very very tight call. VAR ruling Valencia offside by the "barest of margins" as a certain Ian Smith would say.

GOAL! Enner Valencia (3rd minute): Scratch that! Mayhem in the Qatari backline following a free-kick as the goalkeeper comes out and is caught in no-man's land. Felix Torres acrobatically volleys and Enner Valencia heads in from close range but Valencia was deemed offside from the first phase of play. Very tight call that and the crowd cheer loudly after the goal is ruled out

Qatar gets the game going with the kick off.

The anthems are done and we are ready for kickoff. Both teams in a huddle before we begin to kick off.

Ecuador are up first, with 'Salve, Oh Patria'. And then Qatar, with 'As-Salam al-Amiri'.

The anthems are underway - what a moment for the 22 men from both sides. One that they will remember for their lifetimes.

The players are in the tunnels and will soon be walking on to the pitch.

Live visuals show the players doing their pre-match warmups. Not long before we have the kickoff.

Ecuador may be facing the hosts in tonight's opener but their fans are in good spirits with songs being sung with gay abandon. The atmosphere inside the Al Bayt Stadium is carnival-like and we are all ready for kickoff.

If you did not know this before: This is Qatar's first ever World Cup game. Can they become the first side since Senegal in 2002 to win their opening game?

Ecuador (4-4-2) Galindez; Preciado, Torres, Hincapie, Estupinan; Plata, Mendez, Caicedo, Ibarra; Valencia, Estrada.

Qatar (5-3-2) Saad Alsheeb; Pedro Miguel, Boualem Khoukhi, Bassam Hisham, Abdelkarim Hassan, Homam Ahmed; Abdulaziz Hatem, Hassan Alhaydos, Karim Boudiaf; Akram Afif, Almoez Ali.fif, Almoez.

The playing XIs are out as the opening ceremony comes to an end.

Now the Emir starts to speak. Lots of cheers as the Emir speaks in the local language which will be translated of course. 

BTS’s Jung Kook is now on stage and belting out his latest song Dreamers.

The legendary Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman is currently on stage and talking. We get a display of all the 32 flags of the nations and now there's some dancing going on.

Probable formations:

Qatar (5-4-1): Al Sheeb, Hassan, Al-Rawi, Miguel, Salman, Ahmed; Al-Haydos, Boudiaf, Hatem, Afif; Ali.

Ecuador (4-3-3): Dominguez, [Angelo] Preciado, Torres, Hincapie, Estupinian; Gruezo, Cifuentes, Caicedo; Mena, Valencia, Plata.

Ecuador will be dependent on Pervis Estupinian and Moises Caicedo while they will be relying on Enner Valencia who will lead their attack.

Qatar are coming into the game as the tournament's hosts which means automatic qualification but they have won their last 5 international friendlies against Albania, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama. Their star player is Almoez Ali and also their all-time leading scorer. They are captained by Hassan Al-Haydos. 

And we before we bring you the teams news, the opening ceremony has started at the Al Bayt Stadium.

Experienced Italian referee Daniele Orsato will be in charge of this clash. Let's take a look at the team news and expected formations that both teams are going in with as we build up to the big game.

Today's clash sees the hosts Qatar taking on Ecuador. Before the 9:30pm IST kickoff, we have the opening ceremony which should start pretty soon. And the first fans have already started arriving at the Al Bayt Stadium. Among those in attendance for the opening game of the World Cup is former England legend David Beckham.

Hello and welcome to Sportskeeda's live coverage of football's greatest extravaganza and we are set for the next 28 days. It's going to be one hell of a ride - so why not strap yourselves in for the long haul. Grab whatever you like and sit tight as we get you all the updates from the 64 games beginning with Qatar v Ecuador.

32 teams. 28 days. Millions of fans. Billions of eyes. The whole world will be watching. Here is the greatest tournament in the world - the FIFA World Cup and we welcome you all to the 2022 edition. Let's get this started then!