Peru coach, Argentine Ricardo Gareca, called 28 players, Friday, including top scorer Gianluca Lapadola, for the play-off match in the Qatar World Cup 2022 against a team from the Asian Confederation in Doha on June 13.
The return of midfielder Pedro Aquino (America, Mexico) is the main novelty in the team’s payroll, which repeats almost all the names of the last invitations to the South American qualifiers.
“The goal is to be in a new world football event and that is what we are focused on,” Gareca said during a press conference at the sports headquarters of the Peruvian Football Federation (FPF).
On June 13, Peru will play the winner of the Australia-UAE match, which will meet on June 7 in the same Qatari capital.
Previously, Peru and New Zealand would play a friendly match in Barcelona on June 5 in preparation for their play-off matches. Oceanic must face Costa Rica in the play-off on 14 June in Doha.
The Argentine coach highlighted the Inca team’s journey to reach the qualifiers, and said it was living “the best moment of his sporting career”.
And Gareca did not rule out calling up striker Paulo Guerrero, although he hinted that was a remote possibility.
Guerrero is a local idol and returned to Lima a week ago from the States, where he was recovering from a long injury and knee surgery that had taken him off the field since last year.
The red and white teams will travel to Spain on May 28 to prepare for the reforms and are scheduled to travel to Qatar on June 10.
And Peru got the ticket to enter the qualifiers after finishing fifth in the South American qualifiers, as it got its tickets to Qatar 2022, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Ecuador.
The 28 players summoned by Gareca are as follows:
shooters: Pedro Galeese (Orlando City, USA), Jose Carvalho (University Student), Angelo Campos (Alianza Lima).
Defenses: Luis Advincola (Boca Juniors, Argentina), Aldo Corzo (University), Carlos Zambrano (Boca Juniors, Argentina), Miguel Araujo (FC Emmen, Netherlands), Cristian Ramos (Alianza Lima), Alexander Calins (New York City, USA) ) Abram (Cruz Azul, Mexico), Miguel Traocco (Saint-Etienne, France), Marcos Lopez (San Jose, USA).
Midfielders: Renato Tapia (Celta de Vigo, Spain), Wilder Cartagena (Al Ittihad Kalba, UAE), Pedro Aquino (America, Mexico) Sergio Peña (Malmo, Sweden), Horacio Calcatera (Sporting Cristal), Jairo Concha (Alianza Lima), Yoshimar Yotin (Sporting Crystal), Christopher Gonzalez (Sporting Crystal), Andre Carrillo (Al Hilal Saudi), Gabriel Costa (Colo Colo, Chile), Edison Flores (DC United, USA), Christian Cueva (Al-Fateh, Saudi Arabia) Al Jazeera Arabic), Raziel Garcia (Sports Tolima, Colombia).
Attackers: Gianluca Lapadula (Benevento, Italy), Alex Valera (University), Santiago Orminio (Leon, Mexico). (Dr)
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