Edison Flores scored a late goal as Peru earned a 1-0 win over Colombia on Friday, boosting their chances of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Flores, a half-time substitute, scored in the 85th minute to give Peru an invaluable victory in Barranquilla. The DC United winger ran into a through ball and fired a low, angled shot that Colombia goalkeeper David Ospina allowed into his near post.
The two teams started the match tied on 17 points and, although the home team made the most of the run, they were handicapped by their usual profligacy in front of goal. Remarkably, Reinaldo Rueda’s side have now failed to score in their last six World Cup qualifying matches. Peru had two shots on goal in Colombia’s 20th minute and their goalkeeper, Pedro Gallese, made some good saves to keep his team level before Flores’ goal.
Peru’s third straight win in qualifying moved them into fourth place in the 10-team table, one point above Uruguay, who beat 10-man Paraguay on Thursday thanks to a Luis Suarez winner. Colombia slips to sixth place; the top four automatically qualify for Qatar and the fifth faces a playoff with a team from the Asian qualifiers.
Brazil and Argentina have already booked their places and Ecuador, in third place, is well placed to join them. Peru’s next game is at home to Ecuador on Tuesday, while Colombia is away from Argentina that same night. bolivia missed the opportunity to rise above Colombia, as they lost 4-1 to the bottom team in the group, Venezuela.
Earlier, Argentina dented local rivals’ qualification hopes chili with a 2-1 away win in Calama. The visitors rested Lionel Messi but still took the lead through Ángel Di María’s fine curved shot just 10 minutes later. Blackburn’s Ben Brereton Diaz continued his rich streak of form with the hosts’ equalizer when he sent a fine looping header past Emiliano Martinez 10 minutes later. .
Argentina controversially took the victory, taking advantage of an injury to Claudio Bravo 11 minutes before the break. With the Chile goalkeeper preparing to be substituted, Rodrigo De Paul shot from long range and with Bravo only able to deflect the shot, Lautaro Martínez continued to accept the clearance.
“Everything is always much easier when Leo is here,” Di Maria said of his teammate, who is still recovering from Covid-19. Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni also missed the game after testing positive. “Today we were left without the best in the world and our coach, but we got the victory and this is also for them,” Di Maria added.
Iran secures World Cup spot with victory over Iraq
Mehdi Taremi’s close range goal sealed Iran’s third successive qualification for the World Cup by beating neighbors Iraq 1-0 in Tehran. The Porto forward scored from an Alireza Jahanbakhsh pass early in the second half as the AFC Group A leaders booked their place in Qatar.
Despite the rapid spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus in Iran, the government allowed 10,000 spectators to attend the match. More than 2,000 were women, in line with FIFA’s demands that Iran allow female spectators to attend World Cup qualifiers. It was the second time that the women were able to watch a major football match in Iran.
www.theguardian.com
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism