Peru suffered a big dent to their quest to bag one of the spots for the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament after they were beaten by hosts Bolivia. The Peruvians lost 1-0 thanks to a late goal from the home team thus leading to a failed opportunity to close the gap on the top five teams on the South American standings as far as qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament is concerned.
Bolivia had recorded a solitary victory in their latest World Cup qualifying campaign before playing hosts to Peru at the weekend. At the end of proceedings, the Bolivians made it two wins thanks to the slender victory over the Peruvians. The Peruvian players were undone by a late goal from Ramiro Vaca. He scored with seven minutes remaining to win the three points for Bolivia.
Peru missed out on the chance to move within one point of Colombia who occupy the fifth and final possible spot for World Cup qualification. Thefirst four teams at the end of the World Cup 2022 qualifiers in the South American section will qualify for the tournament in Qatar automatically, while the team in fifth place has to go through the inter-confederation playoffs to secure one of the 32 spots at the tournament.
A win over Bolivia in the rescheduled matchday five clash would have taken Peru (11 points) above Paraguay (12 points) on the standings and closer to Colombia (15 points). Peru are in seventh spot at the moment, while Paraguay are sixth on the log.
Paraguay didn’t add any point to their tally after their own rescheduled matchday five clash with hosts Chile ended in a 2-0 defeat. The Chileans scored the two goals within three second half minutes thanks to in-form Blackburn Rovers striker Ben Bereton and Mauricio Isla. Chile stay in eighth place with 10 points despite the win.