MADRID, 12 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The teams of Australia and Peru will play this Monday (8:00 p.m. Spanish peninsular time) at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium in Rayán (Qatar) a ticket for the 2022 World Cup, where they would sign their sixth participation, in an intercontinental playoff that will be played in a single match .
In one of the eight venues that will host the World Cup at the end of the year, Oceanic and South American teams meet in a historic tie, delayed three months due to the consequences of COVID-19 and that for the first time in a long time will abandon its traditional format of roundtrip match. The prize, a place in Group D together with the current champion France, Denmark and Tunisia.
Peru, fifth in the South American Qualifiers, arrives at the meeting after their stay in Barcelona, where they beat New Zealand in a friendly with a goal from striker Gianluca Lapadula (1-0), who has scored in five of his last six appearances with the Benevento or the white and red team.
The ‘Bicolor’, who have kept a clean sheet in seven of their last eight wins, will try to qualify for their second consecutive World Cup under the guidance of Ricardo Gareca, who has already guided the team to the semifinals of the 2021 Copa América. All on a day declared a holiday by the Government of the country.
Opposite, Graham Arnold’s ‘Socceroos’, who defeated the United Arab Emirates to secure the playoffs, will try to break a 12-year streak without beating a South American team, and for this they will cling to the fact that they have played 11 of their 16 matches since the beginning of the pandemic on land in the Middle East.
Both teams already faced each other in the group stage of the last World Cup in Russia 2018, an occasion in which the Peruvians won 0-2 with goals from André Carrillo and Paolo Guerrero. However, neither of them managed to advance to the knockout stages in Group C.