Peru Become Last Country Part - I

Posted by betensured02 on December 15th, 2017

Peru Become Last Country To Qualify For The World Cup

Getting to the World Cup is important stuff, especially for sides that don’t always get to play in the biggest tournament in football and last night Peru booked the final spot in next summer’s party in Russia.

World Cup qualification started quite some time back, in March 2015 with Timor-Leste v Mongolia in case you were wondering exactly when, and over two years later all 32 teams have been decided.

The final spots came down to the play-offs. As well as European sides facing each other for their final four spots there was also games between Asian representative Australia and North American side Honduras whilst Oceana’s New Zealand faced South American side Peru.

Yesterday the Australian’s booked their place with a 3-1 win over Honduras, thanks to a hat-trick from Aston Villa midfielder Mile Jedinak, after a 0-0 draw in the first leg.

Overnight Peru and New Zealand also started off at 0-0 after a first leg draw and Peru won 2-0 thanks to goals from Jefferson Farfan and Christian Ramos to make it to a World Cup for the first time since 1982.

Of course the tournament next summer, just 209 days away to be precise, will be missing some usual stalwarts like Netherlands, Italy and Costa Rica. The British Isles only be represented by England so Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales will be backing them, right?

The way the pots are it looks unlikely we’ll be getting a ‘Group of Death’ when the draw rolls around on December 1st. Even in pot one teams will feel that both the hosts and Poland are beatable.

Seeds will be hoping to get Peru in their group, or England of course.

Kone (left) was labelled a hero after his actions in Prague’s Dolicek Stadium on 25 February

Kone’s heroic actions did not just change the attitudes of some Bohemians fans, he says, but nearly all the people he meets in a country where he has become a local celebrity.

“Now there is more respect because the way they looked at me and treated me before is not the same as the way as they look at me and treat me now. Now there is more friendliness, a better relationship. For them, I am famous.”

One of Kone’s proudest moments came when he travelled with FC Zbrojovka Brno, who he joined in July, to the Czech capital last month to play at the home of reigning champions Slavia Prague.

“I was warming up and I could hear the fans say ‘it’s that guy who saved Martin’ and after that, they started clapping and chanting ‘Francis’ – not my fans, but the fans of Slavia,” he says with a sense of wonder.

“The feeling made me like ‘Oh My God’ and I was not concentrating on warming up – I was away – because it was amazing, very amazing.”