That's all from me for tonight. I have to dash off and record an episode of our World Cup Daily podcast with James Richardson, who doesn't like to be kept waiting. Keep an ear out for that when it goes live in a few hours. Thanks very much for your company, wherever you might be. Have a great weekend.
Enner Valencia scored twice as Ecuador came from behind to win a match that wasn't exactly one for the purists
Updated
Fri 20 Jun 2014 19.59 EDT
First published on Fri 20 Jun 2014 16.30 EDT
Live feed
Ecuador beat Honduras 2-1
Peep! Peep! Peep! It's all over. Ecaudor have come from behind to beat Honduras, courtesy of a brace from the mightily prolific Enner Valencia, who has scored seven goals in his past six matches for his country. As football matches go, it wasn't particularly pretty but was nonetheless entertaining for all that.
90+2 min: With one of the Honduras attempting to hoof the ball long, Antonio Valencia charges down the clearance, sprints forward into the Honduras penalty area and picks out his namesake Enner Valencia, who fires the ball past Noel Valladares. The goal doesn't count, as referee Benjamin Williams had blown repeatedly for a foul - Valencia handled the ball when he charged down the clearance.
90 min: Montero wins a corner for Ecuador, who decide to make a substitution: Montero off, Gabriel Achilier on.
88 min: Figueroa and Bernardez upend Enner Valencia, who proves as adepth at time-wasting as he is at goalscoring. He'd run the ball into the corner in a bid to run down the clock, drew the foul and then stayed down waiting for treatment.
87 min: Amazing scenes as Honduras pass the ball around the edge of the Ecuador penalty area, repeatedly, on the deck, without anyone shanking it 50 feet in the air. This excess of faff and apparent reluctance to get the ball wide and send a cross in allows Ecuador to clear their lines.
85 min: Maynor Figueroa tries a shot from about 45 yards out in the inside-left channel. The ball twists and turns on its way over the bar, mere inches above the angle of cross-bar and upright.
84 min: Another free-kick for Ecuador, about 30 yards from goal, well right of centre. Enner Valencia takes it and gets his shot on target without troubling Noel Valladares unduly.
Ecuador substitutions: Carlos Gruezo and Edison Mendez on for Felipe Caicedo and Oswaldo Minda. Honduras substituion: Marvin Chavez on for Oscar Boniek Garcia.
80 min: Jefferson Montero upends Carlos Costly and the striker reacts by jumping to his feet and shoving the aggressor in the back. The pair go toe-to-toe and the referee steps between them, booking Montero, but not Costly.
79 min: For Ecuador, Montero advances into the Honduras penalty area and takes on Beckeles, who dispossesses him with a good challenge.
78 min: It's worth bearing in mind that defeat for Honduras tonight won't necessarily spell total disaster. They could still progress if they give Switzerland a hiding and in-form France beat Ecuador.
75 min: Good lord! Another free-kick, this time for Ecuador. It's sent straight into the defensive wall.
74 min: Another free-kick, for a foul on Mario Martinez, the substitute who has just replaced Luis Garrido. It's about 35 yards out from the Ecuador goal and Maynor Figueroa steps up. He sends his effort over the bar.
73 min: Enner Valencia is booked for petulantly kicking the ball away in the wake of a refereeing decision that displeased him.
72 min: Enner Valencia is penalised for hand-ball on the edge of the Honduras penalty area. The free-kick count for this match is going to resemble a telephone number. For all the pauses and the stop-start nature of the match, it's hugely entertaining. I can't wait to see Michael Cox try to pick over the tactical bones of this one.
68 min: Ecuador goalkeeper Alexander Dominguez goes down holding his head while contesting a high ball (yes, another one) into his box with Carlos Costly. There's a pause as he receives treatment.
67 min: Honduras show no sign of wilting as they go in search of an equaliser. Fricksen Erazo puts a stop to their latest sortie into Ecuadorian territory, unceremoniously hoofing the ball into Row Z.
GOAL! Honduras 1-2 Ecuador (Enner Valencia 64)
Ecuador win a free-kick between the touchline and the left side of the Honduras penalty area. Walter Ayovi's delivery is sublime: a whipped cross that bends into the path of Enner Valencia. The Ecuadorian striker heads downwards past Noel Valladares to notch up his seventh goal in his past six games.
63 min: Honduras have another goal disallowed after Costly got the ball in the net after receiving a pass from Roger Espinoza. Both players were offside and neither protests too much.
61 min: From a Honduras corner, Maynor Figueroa squanders a good scoring opportunity, mistiming his jump to head the ball straight up in the air when he could have done better.
60 min: Ecuador goalkeeper Dominguez gets down low to his left to save a long-range effort and put the ball out for a corner, from which Jorge Claros ends up shooting over the bar from distance.
57 min: Ecuador's Antonio Valencia wins a free-kick in midfield, but Honduras immediately gift them possession. From the ensuing counter-attack, Felipe Caicedo is put through on goal, only to be thwarted by a last-ditch lunge from Maynor Figueroa. Corner for Ecuador, from which nothing comes. I think it should have been a penalty, as Figueroa did make contact with the striker and knock him off balance. Caicedo stayed on his feet, which may have swayed the referee's opinion.
56 min:Interesting fact: Honduras midfielder Jorge Claros is so hard that in 2011 he sustained a gunshot wound to the head in an attempted car-jacking and then drove himself to the hospital for treatment.
55 min: Espinoza, Garrido and Costly embark on a counter-attack for Honduras.It breaks down, presumably because there's nobody else further up the field for them to pick out with a long ball.
54 min: Ecuador win a corner, which Ayovi swings into the mixer. It's another good delivery, but nobody in an Ecuador shirt attacks the ball.
53 min: For Honduras, Jorge Claros picks up the ball in midfield and immediately hoofs it long to the corner. Juan Carlos Paredes wins possession for Ecuador and clears.
52 min: Antonio Valencia drills a low cross into the Honduras penalty area, where Victor Bernardez hacks clear.
50 min: "There's no real subtlety in either side's play tonight," says Lee Dixon on ITV. "It's been 'get the ball up the front and see what happens'. It's like there's a lake of crocodiles in the middle of the park. But it's a decent game to watch."
48 min: Ecuador win a free-kick between the left touchline and the edge of the penalty area. Bernardez was the guilty party, having fouled Enner Valencia. The free-kick is swung into the box by Noboa and Honduras clear.
46 min: Honduras made a change at half-time, by the way. Emilio Izaguirre has been replaced by Wigan's Juan Carlos Garcia.
Second half: ANd no sooner does it get under way than Honduras right-back Brayan Beckeles lets fly with a rising drive from distance. Alexander Dominguez dives to his left and catches deftly for the cameras.
Attention shrewdies: Apparently you can get odds of 5-2 against a red card being awarded in the second half of this match. I'd say that's worth a punt. Warning: value of investment may go down as well as up.
For the bejaysus alone this is the game of the tournament
— Dion Fanning (@dionfanning) June 20, 2014
ITV's pundits: Gordon Strachan, Andros Townsend and Gus Poyet are having a grand old time laughing at the physicality of the two teams playing tonight (there have been some splendidly agricultural challenges), the long-ball tactics of Honduras and the manner in which both sides keep giving the ball away. They do, however, pause to doff their hats to the huge amount of effort being put in by all 22 players.
An email from Nuno Ferreira: "Is Carlo Costly by any chance chewing a blue straw? Is it style? Is it a Costly thing?" he asks. Nuno is indeed correct to say that Costly is chewing something, which looks suspiciously like the lid of a biro. I'm not sure if that's a Costly "thing", but it certainly can't be too clever to chew on something sharp while playing a football match.
It's half-time. The teams go in all square after a decidedly robust first half.
45 +1 min: Ecuador advance into Honduras territory, but Honduras win possession and counter courtesy of Beckeles. From a cross from the left, Jerry Bengtson gets the ball into the net with his arm, while in an offside position and then gets booked for complaining when the referee and linesman disallow his effort.
44 min: Honduras goalkeeper plays the ball to Beckeles, who hoofs it long. Garrido is fouled and Honduras win a free-kick straight in front of the Ecuador goal, about 35 yards out. Bernardez takes a long run up and shoots with considerable venom. Dominguez dives to put the ball out for a corner. Nothing comes of it.
42 min: Ayovi's excellent corner kick is flicked on at the near post by Noboa. Caicedo averts the danger.
41 min: Walter Ayovi whips the ball into the penalty area with his left foot. He aims for the near post, but Maynor Figuero heads the ball clear for another Ecuador corner.
40 min: I've just seen a replay of the Ecuador goal and the Paredes shot from the edge of the area took a wicked deflection before fizzing into the path of Valencia. Ecuador are turning the screw now and win a corner followed by a free-kick between the touchline and the right side of the Honduras penalty area.
38 min: Paredes goes down under a scything challenge from Jerry Bengston. He wasn't named in the Honduras starting line-up and I don't recall him being brought on, so I suspect the line-ups I retrieved from the news wires might not be entirely correct. THat's a rum one.
36 min: That goal was the result of another defensive blunder, with the right back Brayan Beckeles falling asleep and letting Valencia dart in behind him to divert a diagonal Paredes slash from distance in at the far post.
GOAL! Honduras 1-1 Ecuador (Enner Valencia 33)
For the sixth game in a row, Enner Valencia scores for Ecuador, prodding home from about three yards out.
32 min: That was classic route one football, with Costly capitalising on a woeful error from poor old Jorge Guagua. He should have thumped the long ball clear with his head, but misjudged the flight of the ball. Costly, on his shoulder, was quick to take advantage.
GOAL! Honduras 1-0 Ecuador (Carlo Costly 30)
Carlo Costly opens the scoring for Honduras. They hoof the ball long from defence, Ecuador centre-half Jorge Guagua completely misjudges his header and allows the Honduras striker to gallop in behind him and fire the ball past Dominguez.
30 min: Ecuador's Cristian Noboa concedes a free-kick on the edge of the final third, going in late on Jorge Claros.
27 min: Oof! From the corner, Victor Bernardez blows a gilt-edged chance to open the scoring, leaping highest at the far post to win the header, only to see it flash wide.
26 min: Honduras win a free-kick in their own half. Bernardez hoofs the ball long to the edge of the Ecuador penalty area, where Costly wins the knock-down. The ball breaks for Roger Espinoza, whose long-range drive is deflected out for a corner by Parades.
22 min: Ecuador win a throw-in just inside the Honduras half, which Paredes seems in a desperate rush to take. The momentum is with Ecuador and he wants to keep it that way. On ITV, co-=commentator Lee Dixon bemoans the lack of a midfielder on either side to put his foot on the ball and slow down the game. It's a bit too frenetic, he thinks.
21 min: Ecuador are bossing this game at the moment, with Honduras making a series of silly mistakes that leave them exposed at the back. The Ecuadorians win three corners in quick succession, the last of which is headed clear to give the creaking Honduras defence some respite.
19 min: Izaguirre is caught out badly, marooned by his fellow defenders and left playing Enner Valencia onside. He sticks up his arm as Enner Valencia chases a long ball through the centre, but is let off the hook when the striker clips an excellent chance wide of the left post.
17 min: Another long ball, this time an exquisite pass from deep by Honduras left-back Emilio Izaguirre into space behind the Ecuador defence for Carlos Costly to chase. There's a mite too much welly on the ball, which enables Ecuador goalkeeper Alexander Dominguez to gather.
16 min: Antonio Valencia picks up the ball on the halfway line, just inside the right touchline. He sends a raking diagonal pass long towards Montero in the Honduras right-back position, but the men in white clear their lines.
14 min: Costly tries a shot from distance, but his effort is high and wide.
12 min: Honduras attack and Ecuador full-back Juan Carlos Paredes clatters into the back of Carlo Costly while contesting a high ball just inside the penalty area. The referee opts against awarding a penalty, although one suspects he might have penalised the defender if it had happened elsewhere on the field.
10 min: After some powerful running through the centre, Espinoza picks out Garcia on the edge of the Ecuador penalty area and sprints on to pick up the return pass. It doesn't come.
9 min: It's been a lively, if fairly scrappy and stop-start opening 10 minutes. Neither team has looked particularly dominant thus far.
6 min: We have our first booking of the evening, with Honduras centre-half Victor Bernardez gertys booked for a hack on Felipe Calcido just outside his own penalty area. Cristian Noboa shoots the ensuing free-kick in to the wall.
5 min: From that Ecuadorian attack, Honduras embark on a counter attack and Roger Espinoza sends in a wonderful cross from the right. Alexander Dominguez saves in the Ecuador goal, as Carlos Costly attempts to pounce.
4 min: Caicedo gallops through the centre before playing the ball to Jefferson Montero his left. He whips in a cross, which is cleared before Caicedo can pounce.
3 min: Ecuador play the ball out from the back, before deciding better of it and hoofing the ball long. Honduras take possession and advance with Boniek Garcia on the ball.
2 min: For Ecuador, Caicedo plays the ball wide to Jefferson Montero, who gets an early touch before being dispossessed by Brayan Beckeles.
We're off: Ecuador get the ball rolling, playing from left to right. Honduras immediately concede a foul, with Jorge Claros clattering - I think - Walter Ayovi after three seconds.
National anthems: I've covered them in more detail elsewhere in this report, but the players of Honduras are the first to murder their anthem. Here's hoping they're better at football than singing. Ecuador's is next up and the players all turn towards their flag and place their right hands on their hearts. Meanwhile on the touchline, their back-room team stand with their arms around each other's shoulders.
Not long now: The teams are in the tunnel, waiting to be led out by Ben Williams and his team of match officials. Interesting trivia: both managers are Colombian and each has, in the past, managed the other team. OK, it's not that interesting. Prediction time: I'm going for a draw.
5 - Enner Valencia has scored in each of his last five appearances for #ECU. Streak.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 20, 2014
Watch Honduras' last goal at a World Cup - against Northern Ireland in 1982 http://t.co/uma9WbtY4N
— When Saturday Comes (@WSC_magazine) June 20, 2014
Those line-ups again, this time with added substitute clutter.
Honduras: 18-Noel Valladares; 21-Brayan Beckeles, 5-Victor Bernardez, 3-Maynor Figueroa, 7-Emilio Izaguirre; 17-Andy Najar, 14-Oscar Boniek Garcia, 19-Luis Garrido, 20-Jorge Claros, 15-Roger Espinoza; 13-Carlo Costly
Substitutes: 1-Luis Lopez, 2-Osman Chavez, 4-Juan Pablo Montes, 6-Juan Carlos Garcia, 8-Wilson Palacios, 9-Jerry Palacios, 10-Mario Martinez, 11-Jerry Bengtson, 12-Edder Delgado, 16-Rony Martinez, 22-Donis Escober, 23-Marvin Chavez
Ecuador: 22-Alexander Dominguez; 4-Juan Carlos Paredes, 2-Jorge Guagua, 3-Frickson Erazo, 10-Walter Ayovi; 14-Oswaldo Minda, 16-Antonio Valencia, 6-Cristian Noboa, 7-Jefferson Montero; 13-Enner Valencia, 11-Felipe Caicedo
Substitutes: 1-Maximo Banguera, 5-Renato Ibarra, 8-Edison Mendez, 9-Joao Rojas, 12-Adrian Bone, 15-Michael Arroyo, 17-Jaime Ayov, 18-Oscar Bagui, 19-Luis Fernando Saritama, 20-Fidel Martinez, 21-Gabriel Achilier, 23-Carlos Gruezo
The Guardian's World Cup Show: Comedian and author Andy Zaltzman joins TV's Nat Coombs to gaze in awe at my name on the top of the show's predictions league table. Tune in while you're waiting for kick-off.
Honduras v Ecuador - line-ups
Honduras: 18-Noel Valladares; 21-Brayan Beckeles, 5-Victor Bernardez, 3-Maynor Figueroa, 7-Emilio Izaguirre; 17-Andy Najar, 14-Oscar Boniek Garcia, 19-Luis Garrido, 20-Jorge Claros, 15-Roger Espinoza; 13-Carlo Costly
Ecuador: 22-Alexander Dominguez; 4-Juan Carlos Paredes, 2-Jorge Guagua, 3-Frickson Erazo, 10-Walter Ayovi; 14-Oswaldo Minda, 16-Antonio Valencia, 6-Cristian Noboa, 7-Jefferson Montero; 13-Enner Valencia, 11-Felipe Caicedo
Referee: Benjamin Williams (Australia)
Tonight's referee is an Australian schoolteacher. Benjamin Williams will officiate at his first match at this tournament. Williams is 37 and has refereed at the 2012 Olympics and last year's U-20 World Cup. He has overseen two Champions League finals in two different confederations: for the OFC in 2007 and for the AFC in 2012.
Early team news: With Stoke City's Wilson Palacios suspended, Honduras coach Luis Fernando Suarez has declared that Jorge Claros will replace him. He's expected to make other changes to the line-up that surrendered to France, having said his team "ran away from football" during their opening game. San Jose Earthquakes defender Victor Bernardez is an injury doubt for Honduras, while Ecuador have no suspensions or injury concerns to worry about.
Ecuador national anthem: And here's what DJ Frech thought of Ecuador's. His new single, Make U Bounce, is released on 22 June.
"I love Latin music and culture!" he said. "My recent hit Dibby Sound with Jay Fay was heavily influenced by Brazilian samba axa music. It’s so weird hearing other national anthems because you grow up with your national anthem, it’s in your blood (literally). I’m sure if I was Ecuadorean this would sound a lot less like a cross between jingle bells and onward Christian soldiers. I guess I was hoping for some of that incredible latin rhythmic heat! But hey, I grew up in Maidenhead, so what do I know?"
Honduras national anthem: Before the tournament started, we had the anthems of all 32 participating nations reviewed by various pop stars. Here's what Carol Decker from T'Pau thought of the Honduran effort.
"When you think of God Save the Queen, it’s just one melody all the way through," she wrote. "This, though, is structured like a song – it’s got a verse, a pre-chorus and then it goes into what I would call a chorus and then back to a verse. It’s quite a jolly, memorable melody, punctuated with a lot of cymbals, which lock the melody down. The lyrics are almost a battle cry, full of dramatic lyrics – crashing waves, volcanoes, marching to the death. Personally I think our anthem is really dreary, but this has a better tempo, a more interesting structure. I think it’s a good singalong, and can really picture them bellowing that out, very proud, before kick-off. I’m not much of a football person, but I’m a glory girl, so I’ll tune in for the final, perhaps a semi-final. I doubt I’ll see much of Honduras this summer."
How have Ecuador fared? THey've played one and lost one, going down to a late, late winner against Switzerland last Sunday in Brasilia. Andy Hunter was at that one for the Guardian and you can read his match report by clicking on this link.
How have Honduras fared? Even worse, having shipped three without reply against France in Porto Alegre six days ago, developing a reputation as the tournament's roughest team in the process. Stuart James was our man at the Estádio Beira-Rio and this is how he saw the match unfold.
Good evening everybody. Welcome to our minute-by-minute coverage of this evening's Group E encounter between Honduras and Ecuador, who are both in fairly dire need of a win having lost their openers to France and Switzerland respectively. Tonight's match is being played in Curitiba, the capital of the Brazilian state of Paraná. Kick-off in the Arena da Baixada is at 11pm/BST, but I'll be here from 9.30pm, with team news and match build-up.
Explore more on these topics