Peru and Australia will face each other this coming Monday in Doha in the playoff match for the penultimate quota for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, a crucial duel in which the Bicolor dreams of repeating the achievements of Russia 2018, when he returned to a date World Cup after a 36-year drought.
The match is a repeat of the third match of the group stage of Russia 2018, when Peru defeated Australia and obtained the three points of the match.
At the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, in Rayán, the Peruvians will have to overcome the high temperatures of the Qatari capital, where they arrive after finishing fifth in the South American qualifying table and with the desire to play their second consecutive World Cup. In 2018, they also had to go to the playoffs.
On that occasion it was a round-trip match against New Zealand. Despite the absence of veterans Jefferson Farfán and Paolo Guerrero, the top scorer of the Inca team, the Blanquirroja will take to the pitch in high spirits, after beating New Zealand 1-0 in a friendly that they played in Barcelona and recovering two fixed starters such as Luis Advíncula and Renato Tapia, who recovered from their physical discomfort.
Who will also not be missing from the two-tone box will be the goalkeeper Pedro Gallese and, in front of the rival goal, the attackers André Carrillo, Christian Cueva and Gianluca Lapadula, emblem of the team led by the Argentine Ricardo Gareca.
On “el Tigre”, who was in charge of revolutionizing a team marked by decades of sporting frustrations, the Peruvian fans -defined in 2018 as the best in the world- turn all their hopes, including the Government, which declared a national holiday for the day of the transcendental commitment.If he achieves the ticket to the classification, Gareca will become the first coach to take Peru to two World Cups in a row, since the Blanquirroja achieved it in 1978 and 1982, but with different technical commands.
A treacherous rival?
For the Australian squad, an eventual victory in Doha, which will define which team goes to Group D, where France, Denmark and Tunisia are already located, would give them a pass to their sixth World Cup. In the Qatari capital, where the Socceroos arrive after winning the Asian quota and leaving the United Arab Emirates on the way, those led by Graham Arnold will have the suffocating weather as an ally, which at that time of year can reach 47 degrees.
The team from Oceania will feature names like goalkeeper and captain Mathew Ryan and Ajdin Hrustic, who play for Real Sociedad in Spain and Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany, respectively. The Australians will try not to repeat in Doha their last and only precedent with Peru, with whom they met four years ago in a match that ended with a 2-0 victory for the Bicolor against the Socceroos, with goals from Guerrero and Carrillo.
Likely lineups
Peru: Pedro Gallese, Luis Advíncula, Carlos Zambrano, Alexander Callens, Miguel Trauco, Renato Tapia, Yoshimir Yotín, Sergio Peña, André Carrillo, Christian Cueva and Gianluca Lapadula.
Australia: Mathew Ryan, Nathaniel Arkinson, Kye Rowles, Bailey Wright, Aziz Behich, Jackson Irvine, Ajdin Hrustic, Aaron Mooy, Martin Boyle, Craig Goodwin y Mathew Leckie.
Referee: Slavko Vincic (Slovenia) Stadium:
Estadio: Ahmed bin Ali.
Hour: 1:00 pm (Colombian time)
TV: Win Sports y DirecTV Sports
