Mayra Madrigal
In the Qatar 2022 Repechage, Australia left Peru without a World Cup, by beating the Conmebol representative by a score of 5-4 in a penalty shootout, after having tied 0-0 in regulation time.
Australia’s and Peru’s National Teams met in the first round of the Qatar 2022 Repechage, for one of the last two tickets for the World Cup that will take place from November 21 to December 18 of this year, but –no matter how hard they tried– they could not hurt each other in the 90 minutes or in extra time, so they had to go to penalties.
It was 120 minutes full of emotions at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Qatar, but the special guest did not arrive. The two teams looked for a way not to lose the match and deployed their strategy on the pitch to prevent the rival from scoring.
In terms of possession of the ball in the first half, there was not much difference since both Australia and Peru were handling the ball and had opportunities, but they could not make it happen.
For the second half, it was expected that the two teams would find a way to take risks to try to go to the front. The Peruvian team was the one who started the second half with more momentum, but the Australian defense was up to the task.
This is how the dynamic of the match continued: Australia was well seated in defense limiting the rival to keep the zero in the goal. The 90 minutes ended with the score 0-0, which forced them to go into overtime.
With the pressure of time upon them, those led by Ricardo Gareca showed a little more intensity in extra time and controlled the ball more, and despite having 5 shots, only one went on goal but it did not go in.
Edison Flores had the opportunity to give the winning goal to the Peruvian National Team, managed to overcome the rivals and took a header, but the ball hit the post.
Repechage Qatar 2022: The Goalkeeper Who Became a Hero
The most surprising moment of the match came with seconds remaining in extra time, when Australia coach Graham Arnold decided to make a change of goalkeeper with penalties in mind. Mathew Ryan gave his place to Andrew Redmayne, who later became the hero of the match.
Already in the definition from the 11 steps, Australia was at a disadvantage. The Peruvian goalkeeper, Pedro Gallese saved Martin Boyle’s first shot, so the Conmebol representative team was ahead when Gianluca Lapadula converted his penalty shot.
Australia did not fail in their collections again, while, for the Peruvian team, Luis Advíncula was one of the executioners when he crashed his shot into the post, and then Alex Valera concluded the tragedy, since Andrew Redmayne saved to give the pass to the World Cup to Australia.
Australia will share Group D with France, Denmark, and Tunisia.
There is only one ticket left for Qatar 2022, which will be played by Costa Rica and New Zealand, and whoever wins will go to Group E where Spain, Germany, and Japan.
