Colombian DT Reinaldo Rueda called the historic James-Falcao duo, who have not played together since October 2020.
Five games without winning or scoring is a heavy burden on the road from Colombia to Qatar. Faced with a Peruvian team on the rise that is hot on their heels in the tie, the coffee squad will seek to break the curse to stay in the group that qualifies for the World Cup.
With four dates to play, Colombia occupies fifth place in the table (17 units). Playing at home, they could open a gap against the Peruvians, who are chasing with the same points, but with a worse goal difference.
Resurrected in the tie after beating Bolivia and Venezuela in their last outings, the Incas are content for now with fifth place, which gives way to a playoff against a team from Asia.
Colombian DT Reinaldo Rueda called the historic James-Falcao duo, who have not played together since October 2020.
On the Peruvian bench, the tiger Ricardo Gareca will miss his two most experienced attackers, the injured Paolo Guerrero and Jefferson Farfán.
Channels to watch live Colombia vs. Peru
Ecuador: El Canal del Fútbol (application and website) on YouTube, Movistar Play and TV Cable.
Colombia: Snail and Snail Play.
Peru: América Televisión, Movistar Deportes and Movistar Play for Peru.
Schedules to see live Colombia vs. Peru
1:00 p.m. in Tijuana and Los Angeles
3:00 p.m. in Austin (Texas) and Mexico City
16:00 in Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Miami and New York
18:00 in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil
21:00 in England and Portugal
22:00 in Spain, France, Italy and Germany
Coffee growers and Incas will meet on Friday at the Metropolitan Stadium in hot Barranquilla, without capacity restrictions despite the explosion of infections due to the omicron variant.
Brazil (35) and Argentina (29) lead the table and have already secured places in the World Cup, while Ecuador (24) is about to secure the third direct place.
“Unexplained Streak”
The last time the Colombian fans celebrated a goal was in the 3-1 victory over Chile in September last year.
“We come on a streak that is sometimes inexplicable (…) We have analyzed many factors, from football to psychological,” admitted Rueda when asked about the team’s offensive drought.
“Despite the lack of goals, we went from being seventh to being fourth”, valued the former coach of the Chilean team at a press conference.
Due to the injuries of Luis Muriel and Duván Zapata -the scoring duo of Italian Atalanta- Rueda entrusts himself to the experienced Falcao García and James Rodríguez.
The first is already around 36 years old, but he has shown a good level this season scoring five goals for Rayo Vallecano of the Spanish first division.
In contrast, the performance of James Rodríguez (30) is all unknown after six months competing in Al-Rayyan of the much lower level Qatari league.
“A final”
The Peruvian fans are excited about going to a second consecutive World Cup, but the road to Qatar necessarily passes through the hell of Barranquilla.
“We know that we have the weather (in Barranquilla) against us and this match will be like a final, so we have to be very attentive and focused,” said midfielder Wilder Cartagena (Al-Ittihad Kalba, United Arab Emirates), in statements broadcast by the Peruvian Football Federation.
Coach Gareca, who managed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia after a 36-year absence, will have to face this early final with several casualties.
In addition to the absences of the historic Farfán and Guerrero, midfielder Pedro Aquino (América-MEX) was injured at the last minute.
Defenders Miguel Trauco and Luis Advincula will also be absent. They are all regular starters in Gareca’s formation.
The Inca defense will continue to pay special attention to Colombian wingers Luis Díaz (Porto-POR), who scored two goals in the last match between the two teams, in which Colombia won 3-2 to win third place in the Copa América 2021. (D)
Possible lineups:
Colombia: David Ospina; Juan Cuadrado, Yerry Mina, Davinson Sánchez, Johan Mojica; James Rodriguez, Wilmar Barrios, Matheus Uribe, Luis Diaz; Falcao Garcia, Miguel Borja. DT: Reinaldo Rueda.
Peru: Pedro Gallese; Aldo Corzo, Carlos Zambrano, Alexander Callens, Marcos López; Renato Tapia, Sergio Peña, Yoshimar Yotún; André Carrillo, Christian Cueva and Gianluca Lapadula. DT: Ricardo Gareca.
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