Sharjah24 - AFP: Ecuador will try to break a historic hoodoo Thursday when they travel to Paraguay seeking the point that would book their ticket to the World Cup in Qatar later this year.
In eight previous World Cup qualifiers away to Paraguay, going back to 1981, Ecuador have lost every single one.
If they avoid defeat, they would qualify for Qatar 2022 with a game to spare, turning their final match at home to Argentina in Guayaquil on March 29 into a celebration, something many Ecuadorans thought impossible when the campaign began.
"This national team deserves double the praise because you have to be very honest, 99.9 percent of Ecuadorans did not think they would qualify for the World Cup," Carlos Tenorio, a former international striker who scored twice for Ecuador at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, told El Universo.
"People still remember Tenorio's goals in 2006," when Ecuador reached the last 16.
"In our time we gave joy but now these guys deserve much more and they have far better conditions than we did to achieve it."
Paraguay's slim hopes of reaching Qatar ended with a 1-0 loss at home to Uruguay at the end of January and a 4-0 defeat in Brazil at the start of February.
Brazil and Argentina secured qualification last year and both remain unbeaten during the campaign.
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