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IN the lead up to the World Cup, it's not just football that players will be practicing. They will also be warming up their singing voices for their countries' national anthems.

SunSport have been looking into Ecuador's 'Salve, Oh Patria' ahead of their opening day match-up against hosts Qatar.

The South American side finished fourth in their qualifying group, booking their place in the tournament amid controversy surrounding a player's fake passport allegations.

They will be hoping to make their country proud at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

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What are the lyrics to Ecuador's national anthem?

Ecuador's national anthem was created in the 1800s by poet Juan Leon Mera and musician Antonio Neumane Marno.

After some tweaks to the words, it became the country's official anthem in 1948.

'Salve, Oh Patria' references Ecuador's uprising against Spain in the early 1800s as well as the subsequent war of independence.

Unlike most other anthems, Ecuador's opens with the chorus. Here's how it goes.

Chorus

We greet you, Oh Fatherland, a thousand times!

Oh fatherland, glory to you!

Your breast overflows with joy and peace,

Your radiant face is brighter than the shining sun we see

Verse 1

Your children were outraged by the yoke

That Iberian audacity imposed on you,

By the unjust and horrendous disgrace fatally weighing upon you.

They cried out a holy voice to the heavens,

That noble voice of an unbreakable pledge,

To defeat that monster of blood,

That this servile yoke would disappear.

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Verse 2

The first sons of the soil,

Which Pichincha proudly adorns,

Declared you as their sovereign lady forever,

And shed their blood for you.

God observed and accepted the holocaust,

And that blood was the prolific seed,

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Of the other heroes whom the world in astonishment,

Saw rise up around you by the thousands

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