It was a bad outing for African countries at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Indonesia as Mali and Morocco suffered defeat.
After beating Panama 2-0 in their opening match, Morocco fell 0-2 to Ecuador on Monday.
Michael Bermudez scored a match-winning brace as Ecuador surged to the summit of Group A.
In the sweltering heat of Surabaya, captain Michael Bermudez emerged as the South Americans’ hero with a well-taken second-half brace, settling a match that could have gone either way.
Chances were at a premium throughout but Morocco created the better of the few carved out in the first half, including an Abdelhamid Ait Boudlal header that crashed against the face of the bar.
Ecuador, though, improved after the break and won a spot-kick just after the hour-mark when Naoufel El Hannach was lured into a needless foul on Elkin Ruiz.
Bermudez stepped up and, despite Taha Benrhozil dancing on his line in an attempt at distraction, kept his cool to drill a firm and precise penalty into the bottom-left corner.
Morocco still had plenty of time to mount a comeback but created little in the time that followed, and Bermudez completed his brace in stoppage time after snatching on a slack back-pass before skipping past the keeper and slotting home.
Ecuador now look well placed to qualify for the knockout phase.
Their African opponents still remain second after hosts Indonesia and Panama played out a draw.
A 62nd-minute Juan Hernandez strike was enough for Spain to beat 10-man Mali in Surakarta and take a giant leap towards the FIFA U-17 World Cup knockout phase.
The African side played for more than half of the game with a numerical disadvantage after Mamadou Doumbia – hat-trick hero in their opening-game win over Uzbekistan – was sent off.
Ange Martial Tia thought he had given Mali the lead when he slotted home on the half-hour mark – the goal was chalked off, however, following a VAR review for a foul in the build-up by Sekou Kone.
The African side had looked the more likely to score, even before the disallowed goal, but game took a significant turn on 40 minutes when Doumbia was red-carded for a challenge on Pau Prim.
Despite their numerical disadvantage, Mali continued to regularly advance into dangerous positions in the early stages of the second half – but Spain hit the front with a moment of real quality.
