Ecuador's Pedro Vite celebrates Ecuador's Gonzalo Plata scoring his side's second goal against Germany during the second half of a World Cup Group E soccer match in East Rutherford, N.J., near New York, Thursday, June 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Ecuador's Gonzalo Plata, center right, celebrates scoring his side's second goal against Germany during the World Cup Group E soccer match in East Rutherford, N.J., near New York, Thursday, June 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Ecuador's Gonzalo Plata (19) celebrates scoring his side's second goal against Germany during the World Cup Group E soccer match in East Rutherford, N.J., near New York, Thursday, June 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Ecuador's Pedro Vite celebrates Ecuador's Gonzalo Plata scoring his side's second goal against Germany during the second half of a World Cup Group E soccer match in East Rutherford, N.J., near New York, Thursday, June 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
RF
Ecuador's Gonzalo Plata, center right, celebrates scoring his side's second goal against Germany during the World Cup Group E soccer match in East Rutherford, N.J., near New York, Thursday, June 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Yuki Iwamura
Ecuador's Gonzalo Plata (19) celebrates scoring his side's second goal against Germany during the World Cup Group E soccer match in East Rutherford, N.J., near New York, Thursday, June 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Gonzalo Plata poked the ball past Manuel Neuer in the 77th minute, and Ecuador advanced to the knockout stage of the World Cup by rallying for a 2-1 win over Germany on Thursday.
Plata, who took a kick to the head when Germany scored its early goal, keyed Ecuador's great escape after Pedro Vite's corner kick was nodded on by Kevin RodrÃguez. Neuer, the 40-year-old Germany goalkeeper who came out of international retirement for the World Cup, was about the grasp the ball when Plata raised his left foot and with a toe put the ball into the net.
Ecuador coach Sebastián Beccacece ran to the stands to celebrate.
Ecuador finished third in the group with four points and advanced past the group stage for the second time, the first since a round of 16 game in 2006.
Germany’s winning streak was stopped at 11 games, one shy of the team record set in 1979-80. The four-time champions will play their round of 32 game Monday at Foxborough, Massachusetts, most likely against Paraguay, Australia or Sweden.
A crowd of 80,663 at MetLife Stadium that was mostly in Ecuador's yellow boosted attendance to a record 3,587,539 in the 56th game of the expanded tournament, one more than the 52 matches for the 1994 tournament in the U.S.
Angulo scored a short time later after Felix Nmecha lost the ball in midfield to Vite. He passed it to Angulo, who dribbled toward goal and beat Neuer to the far post from just outside the area.