HAMBURG, June 15: Ecuador strolled past Costa Rica 3-0 and into the second round of the World Cup on Thursday for the first time in their history.

Goals in either half from Carlos Tenorio (8) and Agustin Delgado (54) and then a late strike from Ivan Kaviedes kept the South Americans' 100 percent record in Group A intact following a 2-0 win over Poland in their opening match.

Germany are also through, having beaten Poland 1-0 in Dortmund on Wednesday night.

Delgado and Tenorio were also goalscorers against the Poles.

The group winners will be decided when Ecuador meet the hosts Germany next Tuesday. The Ticos, meanwhile, head home after the first phase for a second successive finals.

Ecuador coach Luis Fernando Suarez was already looking forward to that match after the convincing victory.

“It will be very difficult against Germany because the players are going to be tired. They played two games. They want to play a very good match against Germany. It will be a historic match,” he told reporters.

Despite early pressure from Costa Rica, Ecuador opened the scoring after eight minutes when Tenorio headed home from a nicely floated cross by Luis Valencia.

Costa Rica came out fighting once again in the second half, but their enthusiasm was short-lived as Ecuador doubled their tally in the 54th minute with a superbly taken goal.

Edison Mendez won the ball on the right hand corner of the box before Delgado pounced on to the loose ball, controlled it with his chest, before rifling home from a tight angle.

Two minutes into injury time, Kaviedes turned the ball in with a volley after a cross from the right to make it three.

The early goal in the first half seemed to settle the South Americans and they began to take control of the game, stringing together long pieces of passing play

Their opponents were reduced to long range shots which never really troubled Ecuador.

Costa Rica coach Alexandre Guimaraes told reporters: “The game is like that when you miss chances the other side have no mercy. That is the story for us in these two games.”

Scorers: Ecuador — Carlos Tenorio 8, Agustin Delgado 54, Ivan Kaviedes 90+2.

Halftime: 1-0.

ECUADOR: 12-Cristian Mora; 4-Ulises de la Cruz, 3-Ivan Hurtado, 17-Giovanny Espinoza (2-Jorge Guaga 68), 18-Neicer Reasco; 8-Edison Mendez, 20-Edwin Tenorio, 14-Segundo Castillo, 16-Luis Antonio Valencia (6-Patrico Urrutia 69); 11-Agustin Delgado, 21-Carlos Tenorio (10-Ivan Kaviedes 46).

COSTA RICA: 18-Jose Francisco Porras; 3-Luis Marin, 4-Michael Umana, 15-Harold Wallace; 12-Leonardo Gonzalez (16-Carlos Hernandez 56), 8-Mauricio Solis, 10-Walter Centeno (13-Kurt Bernard 84), 20-Douglas Sequeira, 6-Danny Fonseca (19-Alvaro Saborio 29); 11-Ronald Gomez, 9-Paulo Wanchope.

Referee: Coffi Codjia (Benin).—Reuters

Group A standings