Peru are ready, Colombia at the Estadio Nacional de Lima on Saturday, the seventh matchday of the South American qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The hosts have not yet won any of their six qualifying matches and have only picked up two points, while the visitors are in third place in the table with 12 points from six games.

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After failing to qualify for a FIFA World Cup eight times, Peru finally qualified for the 2018 tournament in Russia. It was their first participation in the competition since 1982 in Spain.

They failed to progress from a group containing France, Denmark and Australia, finishing third with three points from three games, which led to an early exit.

Peru finished fifth in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup and will face Australia in a one-game playoff for qualification for the tournament in Qatar.

The two teams played a tough game in the deciding match for a place in the world’s most prestigious tournament, finishing 0-0 after 120 minutes before suffering a devastating 4-5 defeat on penalties.

Peru had hoped to go one step further and qualify for the 2026 edition of the competition, but a poor start to the qualification campaign has left the team bottom of the table with just two points.

Jorge Fossatiwho was hired in December 2023 following the team’s poor start to World Cup qualifying, hopes his team can stage a miraculous recovery and pick up six points from their matches against Colombia and Ecuador to secure a place in the tournament.

However, Colombia will be an extremely tough test for the hosts. Nestor Lorenzo‘s team put in a fantastic performance at the Copa America 2024.

Lorenzo, who was brought in after Colombia’s disappointing qualification for the 2022 World Cup, has made huge improvements in his two years at the helm of the team.

The 58-year-old remained unbeaten in his first 26 games as coach of the team, extending Colombia’s unbeaten streak to 28 games in all competitions before the team eventually lost to Argentina in the Copa America final, their first Copa America final in 23 years.

Lorenzo will now look to get back on track against Peru before the team faces Argentina again in their final World Cup qualifier, but after a promising start to qualifying, their place at the 2026 finals looks likely.

Peru World Cup Qualifiers – South American Form:

Peru Form (All Competitions):

Colombia World Cup Qualifiers – South American Form:

Colombia form (All competitions):

Team News

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After two consecutive defeats in recent games, Fossati could return to the team that picked up its only point at the 2024 Copa America, when they played 0-0 against Chile.

Peru failed to score a single goal in this tournament, so Fossati had to Gianluca Lapadula And Edison Flores to rediscover their goal-scoring qualities here.

Despite their heartbreaking loss to Argentina in the Copa America final, Colombia could field a similar team to the one that impressed throughout the tournament.

James Rodriguez was particularly impressive in this tournament and broke Lionel MessiHe broke the 2012 record for a single Copa America tournament with six assists and also provided an assist himself. The Colombian talisman is likely to start here.

Possible starting lineup for Peru:
Gaulish; Araujo, Zambrano, Callens; Polo, Pena, Cartagena, Quispe, Advincula; Lapadula, Flores

Possible starting lineup for Colombia:
Vargas; Munoz, Sanchez, Cuesta, Mojica; Rios, Lerma, Arias; Rodriguez, Cordoba, Diaz

We think: Peru 0-3 Colombia

Colombia scored a lot of goals at the Copa America, scoring 12 times – the most the country has ever scored in a single tournament. With Peru struggling in front of goal, we expect an easy win for the visitors.

Click here to see a data analysis of the most likely outcomes, scores and more for this match.

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