Zlatan Ibrahimovic Called Ecuador’s Win Over Germany a ‘Miracle’. He Meant That as a Compliment.

Ecuador just pulled off one of the stranger upsets you’ll see in a World Cup group stage. And Zlatan Ibrahimovic, on commentary duty for FOX, didn’t mince words about what he saw.

The South Americans needed a win against Germany on Thursday night to have any shot at advancing. They’d been flat in their first two games — a 1-0 loss to Ivory Coast followed by a scoreless draw with Curacao. Barely any goals. Barely any danger. Going into Matchday 3, they looked like a team already packing for home.

Then Germany scored in the first few minutes. And it felt over.

But Ecuador didn’t fold. They clawed back, fought through, and walked away with a 2-1 win that sent them through to the knockout round as one of the top third-place teams. It was messy, it was desperate, and according to Ibrahimovic, it was a borderline miracle.

“I said it before the game; get one chance, you might get lucky. Get two chances, it’s a miracle,” Ibrahimovic said on the FOX broadcast. “And to be honest, they got lucky and had a miracle by the chances. It doesn’t mean the game was not a good game; they had a fantastic performance. They won the game.”

He kept going. Said when you’re playing for a win — not a draw, not damage control — you play differently. You take bigger risks. You attack more. And that shift in mentality, in his view, is what flipped the result.

“The players need to take more risks, they need to attack more, they need to risk more, and it’s a different gameplay. So that’s why they won this game. Big compliments for them,” he said.

What this result actually means for both teams

For Ecuador, this is their best World Cup showing since 2006 — the last time they got out of the group stage. They finished with four points: one win, one draw, one loss. It’s not pretty on paper, but nobody’s asking questions right now. They’re into the knockout round, and that’s all that matters.

Germany, meanwhile, ends the group with six points — two wins, one loss — and will start their own knockout path on June 29. It’s not a disaster for them, but losing to a team that barely scraped through the group is an ugly note to carry into the next phase.

Ecuador now waits to see who they’ll face in the Round of 32. The draw hasn’t been set yet. But considering where they were a week ago — zero goals, one point, staring at elimination — they’re playing with house money now.