The Blues will know this Monday evening the identity of their third opponent in Group D of the World Cup in Qatar.
The last step before the World Cup in Qatar: Australia and Peru face off in the host country of the 2022 World Cup on Monday for a place in Group D of world champions France, Denmark and Tunisia. The kick-off of this intercontinental play-off, the penultimate qualifying match for the 2022 World Cup, will be given at 9:00 p.m. local time (8:00 p.m. French time) in the air-conditioned air of the Ahmad ben Ali stadium in Al-Rayyan (west of Doha). , which will host seven matches during the tournament from November 21 to December 18.
The Peruvian selection, 22nd in the FIFA rankings and 5th in the qualifications for the South American zone, is aiming for a sixth participation in the World Cup, the second in a row after 2018 after 36 years of absence. The “SocceroosAustralians, 42nd nation in the world and 3rd in their qualifying group, kept their hopes of playing for a sixth World Cup alive by beating the United Arab Emirates (2-1) in a pre-play-off match in the Asia zone in Qatar last week. The two countries have met only once before, in the first round of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, in a match that ended in a 2-0 victory for the South Americans, already under the leadership of the Argentinian coach Ricardo Gareca.
Accustomed to dams to access the World Cup, Australia likes to be “l’outsider», «back against the wall“, proclaimed his coach Graham Arnold after the victory over the Emirates. “I instilled in these guys that sometimes you don’t play well but you can always win by fighting, running, chasing and being aggressive. And that too can be a success“, he developed, expecting all the same to”great progress» of his people from here to face Peru. Peruvian midfielder Renato Tapia, he sees “a very difficult game” versus “a very physical opponent, very tough“, he said in a press conference last week in Barcelona, where his team won 1-0 against New Zealand in a friendly. “Our national team always plays a final in every game and this (play-off) is the most important in our life in recent yearsAdded another midfielder, Edison Flores.
For the country too: Monday was declared a public holiday for Peruvian officials to allow them to follow the meeting, and twelve shamans performed a ceremony at the top of a sacred hill in Lima on Friday to try to influence its outcome. There are still two tickets out of 32 to be won for the first World Cup in an Arab country: on Tuesday, Costa Rica and New Zealand will decide for a place in the group E record, with Spain, Germany and the Japan.