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Peru national football team

The Peru national football team have a reputation of being reliably inconsistent on the international stage. The side have qualified for four world cup finals tournaments and won the Copa America twice. The side traditionally wear red and white and play their home matches in the capital Lima at the Estadio Nacional. The Peru national team were one of the teams that took part in the first ever world cup tournament in 1930. It then took the side another forty years to qualify for another.

The Peru national football team enjoyed a golden period during the 1970’s and early eighties. After the team’s failure in the playoff round for the 1986 world cup things began to slowly decline for Peruvian football. In 1987 an aircraft crashed into the Pacific Ocean killing several Peru international players and coaching staff.

In the team’s 1990 and 1994 world cup qualifying campaigns they failed to win a single game. Unsurprisingly they finished bottom of both groups. This unhappy scenario repeated itself for the 2010 world cup qualifiers, although this time they did win three games. The team played amid speculation of key players drinking in the days leading up to games. While some were put under investigation others were banned from playing. After this debacle the Peruvian press labelled the team the worst in the national team’s 82 year history.

World cup history

1930
1970
1978
1982
2018
1930

Uruguay

The 1930 world cup was the first staging of the now famous tournament. It was hosted by Uruguay and also won by them too. The South American staging of the competition resulted in many of the European teams who were invited declining. The travel involved was too much for most. The Peru national football team did compete in the tournament but may have wished they hadn’t. They were beaten by one of the European nations that did compete, Romania, in their first group match. Then followed this up with a 1-0 loss to Uruguay to finish bottom without a single point.

1970

Mexico

As mentioned it was quite some time before the Peru national football team returned to the world cup. In 1970 the tournament was hosted by Mexico to become the first one hosted in North America and the first outside of Europe and South America. The final came down to two world cup greats in Brazil and Italy. Brazil had what many believe now to be the greatest team in world cup history and prevailed 4-1. It was the third time they had won the competition and so were able to keep the Jules Rimet Trophy. The Peru national football team performed far better than their only previous attempt. After their first two group games they had already qualified, and a group deciding third game defeat left the side progressing in second place. Unfortunately for the side this left them to face the unstoppable Brazil in the quarter final. They did make a game of it however and eventually lost out 4-2.

1978

Argentina

Rather than thirty years the Peru national football team only had to wait eight before appearing at their next world cup. This time the competition was being hosted by, and won by, Argentina. It was the first time they had won the world cup after a 3-1, after extra-time win over the Netherlands. Peru performed strongly in the group phase again with two wins and a draw against the Netherlands. They actually finished above the eventual finalists. In 1978 the second round format was another two groups split into group winners and group runners-up. This second phase group did not go well for the Peru national football team as they lost all three games which included a 6-0 defeat to Argentina. There are suspicions that Peru were bribed and intentionally conceded the goals to allow Argentina and not Brazil to progress to the final. These were never proved however.

1982

Spain

In 1982 the world cup returned to European soil. Staged in Spain the tournament was eventually won by Italy. They defeated West Germany 3-1 in the final to claim their third world cup win. The Peru national football team were looking in a reasonably good position after two draws from their opening two group games. This included a 1-1 draw with eventual champions Italy. It was in the third game that things fell apart. If they had beaten Poland then they would have actually won the group but they slumped to a 5-1 loss and a last placed finish.

2018

Russia

Yet to qualify

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