2002 World Cup - Ecuador 2 Paraguay 1

Ecuador have maintained their momentum in the quest for a place at next year's World Cup finals by coming from behind to beat Paraguay in Quito while suffering two red cards

The nine-man Ecuador also saw inspirational midfield leader Alex Aguinaga miss most of the game with injury.

Two goals from striker Augustin Delgado saw him become the joint top scorer in the CONMEBOL qualifying section as Ecuador continue to impress after their 1-0 win over Brazil last month.

Ecuador had substitute Wellington Sanchez sent off in injury time for wasting time at a corner kick he was trying to complete but Paraguay could not recover but stay in second place in the ten-team group and have a good chance of reaching Japan and South Korea with four teams to qualify and a fifth to meet the winners of Oceania's qualifying stages in November.

Ecuador have never played at a World Cup finals before and their form continues to take full advantage of lapses from Brazil to take up an unexpected spot in the higher reaches of the table. They are now in third place with Brazil hosting Peru tonight.

Paraguay had Ricardo Tavareli in goal replacing suspended captain Jose Luis Chilavert and he made two god saves in the opening ten minutes as Ecuador started the game by attacking.

But the home team's defender Augusto Porozo was sent off in the 19th minute for a professional foul on Nelson Cuevas as he ran in on goal and went into the lead in the 27th minute.

Cuevas found space in a confused defence but his shot was saved by Jose Cevallos with Cardozo following up to scuff a shot into the net which Cevallos got a hand to but could not keep out.

Journalists invaded the pitch shortly after when a fan threatened the referee by getting onto the pitch himself and the game was delayed for several minutes.

It was long enough for Alex Aguinaga to suffer a muscle problem at the restart and he failed to complete the game leaving Ecuador looking at a first home defeat in their World Cup campaign.

They dug deep and equalised seconds before half time when a long and hopeful ball forward found the head of Ivan Kaviedes who steered it into the run of Delgado, who scored with a first time shot.

Delgado hit what proved to be the winner eight minutes into the second half after Edison Mendez crossed from the right to head in and Ecuador had other chances to extend their lead as Paraguay failed to cope with the extra man advantage.