LIMA, Nov 16: As Peru’s president promised, the South American country will have its soccer-dedicated holiday on Thursday.

Peru beat New Zealand 2-0 on Wednesday night to win a two-leg playoff and earn the 32nd and last spot in the World Cup field in Russia.

The last time the Peruvians reached the World Cup was in 1982 in Spain.

After a goalless draw in New Zealand on Saturday, a more vibrant Peru showed up at the Estadio Nacional.

Despite the absence of their main striker Paolo Guerrero, who has been suspended by FIFA on doping suspicions, the Peruvians controlled the match from the start.

At 28 minutes, striker Jefferson Farfan opened the scoring from the edge of the box burying the ball into the New Zealand net. In tears, the Lokomotiv Moscow forward showed the shirt of his boyhood friend Guerrero to the crowd.

New Zealand’s attempt to react and qualify for its third World Cup in history never got even close to the Peruvian goalkeeper.

Then at 65 minutes, defender Christian Ramos netted the second after a mistake from New Zealand’s defense on a corner.

Peru’s qualification put the South American team in a World Cup pot with Spain, Switzerland, England, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and Croatia.

The final draw of the Russia World Cup will be on Dec 1t at the Kremlin in Moscow and groups will be formed with one team from each of the four pots.

A still tearful Farfan said after the match that his team had “to endure a lot of nonsense until we got here.”

“I dedicate this to Paolo, I promised him we would deliver,” Farfan said. Guerrero scored six goals for Peru in South American qualifiers.

Peru finished fifth in South American World Cup qualifying.

In his press conference Peru coach Ricardo Gareca preferred to thank the team’s psychologist for the result. “He was very important for us at this turbulent moment,” the Argentinian coach said.

Midfielder Christian Cueva, who assisted Farfan in the first goal and took the corner kick that led to the second one, said Peru deserves the holiday promised by President Pedro Paulo Kuczynski.

“It is a wait of 35 years, we didn’t deserve to be away from the World Cup for so long,” Cueva said. “All Peruvians should take this Thursday to celebrate as never before.”

Kuczynski used Twitter to ask for moderation in the festivities on the holiday.

“Thanks to our warriors for giving us this joy. Let’s celebrate with responsibility,” he said. AP

MILAN, Nov 14: Four-time champion Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in six decades after losing its playoff to Sweden 1-0 on aggregate.

They played to a goalless draw in the second leg at San Siro on Monday.

Sweden advanced to its first World Cup since 2006.

It could have been worse for Italy, as Sweden was denied what looked like two clear-cut penalties for handballs, first by Matteo Darmian and then Andrea Barzagli.

Italy had a penalty appeal of its own waved off by referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz when Marco Parolo was tripped from behind by Ludwig Augsustinsson.

But the Azzurri struggled to carve out clear chances against a solid Sweden side, and really tested goalkeeper Robin Olsen only once.

This will be only the second World Cup missed by Italy. The first was in 1958.

The last major competitions Italy failed to qualify for were the 1984 and 1992 European Championships.

It would be easy to lay the blame squarely on Gian Piero Ventura. The Italy coach will naturally take the lion’s share but the Azzurri’s problems run much deeper.

The rot started long before Ventura took charge.

After winning the World Cup in 2006 for a fourth time, Italy went out at the group stage of the next two editions. It fared somewhat better at the European Championship, reaching the final in 2012 and going out in the quarterfinals in 2008 and 2016.

However, Antonio Conte’s Italy side overachieved in France last year, when it surprisingly beat Spain in the round of 16 before losing on penalties to world champion Germany.

For a long time, Italy has lacked a creative force. The likes of Andrea Pirlo and Francesco Totti of the 2006 side could change a match with one moment of magic.

Both are long retired.

Mario Balotelli was the star of Euro 2012 but fell out of favor after Italy’s woeful showing at the last World Cup, and hasn’t been called up by Ventura, while Conte selected him in only one squad.

The lack of stars in the Italy team is reflected in the Italian league.

Juventus has been a force to be reckoned with in recent years in Europe, where it has reached two out of the past three Champions League finals. But while its defense forms the backbone of the Italy team, its midfield and attack are made up mainly of foreign players.

The Brazilian-born Jorginho was finally handed his competitive debut by Ventura, and the midfielder impressed with some deft passing.

Jorginho created Italy’s best opportunities with two throughballs for Ciro Immobile, who hit the netting from a tight angle from one. Immbobile beat Olsen with another but Andreas Granqvist got back for a decisive goal-line clearance.

Alessandro Florenzi was also back following a year out after twice tearing a knee ligament, and the midfielder forced Olsen into his only real save, while a cross of his was also deflected onto the crossbar in the second half.

Meanwhile, the highly rated Lorenzo Insigne surprisingly played only 15 minutes of the playoff — and out of position.

Those three players are 26 or under and, along with forwards Ciro Immobile and Andrea Belotti, could form the spine of a rejuvenated Italy side for several years to come.

The 29 nations that have already booked their place for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, after Sweden qualified on Monday:

Europe: Belgium, England, Germany, Iceland, Poland, Russia (as hosts), Serbia, Spain, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Croatia, Sweden

Africa: Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia

Asia: Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea

North, Central America and Caribbean: Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama

South America: Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia

The three remaining places will be decided by Wednesday, November 15. They will go to:

– The winner of the last European play-off: Denmark v Republic of Ireland

– The two winners of intercontinental play-offs: Peru v New Zealand, Australia v Honduras

AGENCY

BASEL, Nov 13: Switzerland full back Ricardo Rodriguez was also eligible to play for Chile and Northern Ireland might have been wishing on Sunday that he had.

For the second time in four days, Rodriguez proved decisive as Switzerland clinched their two-leg playoff tie 1-0 on aggregate.

Having converted the hugely controversial penalty which gave the Swiss a 1-0 win in Belfast on Thursday, Rodriguez made a timely intervention which prevented the tie going into extra time.

Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer failed to cut out a corner, Jonny Evans beat his marker to the ball and headed towards goal only for Rodriguez, born in Zurich to a Spanish father and Chilean mother, to hook it off the line.

The set-ball specialist is one of Europe’s top left backs although he currently finds himself in a struggling AC Milan side and had the misfortune to give away a decisive penalty when they lost the Milan derby last month.

“He had two good games and he was in the right place at the right time,” said Switzerland coach Vladimir Petkovic, using his words sparingly as usual.

Petkovic said he was proud of his players although he was not so happy when misfiring forward Haris Seferovic was jeered off the field by a section of the home crowd.

“It’s a shame,” said Petkovic. “We should learn from the Northern Ireland supporters who continued supporting there team all the time, even though they were behind.”

“That’s not to say that our fans didn’t support us, but we need their backing for the whole 90 minutes.”

The Swiss players were relieved to have finished a 12-match campaign which featured 10 wins, one draw and a single defeat, away to European champions Portugal in their final group match

“The best moment was the final whistle,” said team captain Stephan Lichtsteiner. Asked to analyze the game, midfielder Granit Xhaka said: “Nobody is interested in how the game went.”

CROATIA BOOKS THEIR PLACE

Croatia clinched a place in next year’s World Cup on Sunday after holding Greece to a goalless draw to complete a 4-1 aggregate victory in their playoff tie.

Having done the hard work four days ago by triumphing in the first leg in Zagreb, Zlatko Dalic’s team finished the job comfortably against a much-improved Greek team, who were full of attacking intent and tenacious tackling.

Despite the home side’s brave efforts, however, it was Croatia who came closest to scoring with Ivan Perisic hitting the post in the first half as the visitors qualified with ease for the showpiece in Russia.

No team has overturned a 4-1 first leg deficit at this stage, while the Croatians have now not lost a major tournament playoff match on any of their five occasions.

There were some flashes of danger from Michael Skibbe’s Greece side. However, despite having more possession, chances were few and far between and they failed to test Croatian goalkeeper Danijel Subasic until the 87th minute with Panagiotis Tachtsidis having his shot saved.

Skibbe shuffled his pack considerably, making six changes after their poor performance in the first leg – three of those came in defence with Giannis Maniatis, Giorgos Tzavellas, and Kyriakos Papadopoulos replaced by fit-again captain Vasilis Torosidis, Kostas Manolas and Panagiotis Retsos.

The changes, coupled with a vociferous home crowd inside the Georgios Karaiskakis stadium, seemed to work as the hosts looked more competitive, tenacious in the tackle and chasing every lost cause.

For all Greece’s enthusiastic and energetic play, however, Croatia always looked threatening when they managed to get forward, with Perisic, Nikola Kalinic and Mario Mandzukic all causing problems with their movement and slick passing.

Inter Milan midfielder Perisic came closest to a goal when his fierce shot cannoned off Orestis Karnezis’ left post with the Greek goalkeeper well beaten just before half-time.

Greece continued to try and chip away at Croatia but apart from Tachtisidis’ shot, the visitors held on comfortably to ease through. AGENCIES