Venezuela vs Peru (1-1): summary and goals of the 2026 Qualifiers game | VIDEO

Peru tied 1-1 with Venezuela this Tuesday in Lima in the match that closed the sixth date of the play off South American for the 2026 World Cup. The ‘Blanquirroja’ opened the scoring through Yoshimar Yotún in the 17th minute, but Jefferson Savarino tied the game for Vinotinto in the 54th minute at the National Stadium.

With no margin for error, Peru exhibited completely offensive football from the start of the match in the face of the challenge of achieving a first victory that would allow it to climb out of the abyss of the qualifiers. The National Stadium, where more than 38,000 Peruvian and Venezuelan fans gathered, seemed the ideal setting to recover the World Cup dream.

At 8 minutes the first warning sign came, when midfielder Pedro Aquino took a long-distance shot straight to the goal that was saved by goalkeeper Rafael Romo who saved his goal.

As the minutes passed, the Peruvian team began to put their Venezuelan rival in their field, who defended their goal with determination.

The duo between the Italian-Peruvian Gianluca Lapadula and Yoshimar Yotún became a headache for the visit.

At 17, Yotún scored with a header to make it 1-0 for Peru after a cross from the right wing by midfielder Joao Grimaldo. The first Peruvian goal in the qualifying rounds was celebrated at the top of their lungs by the thousands of fans.

After the goal against, Vinotinto began to generate good collective plays to try to tie the match, but ran into a solid red and white defense.

With the skilled forward Yeferson Soteldo and Salomón Rondón they generated threatening counterattacks for goalkeeper Pedro Gallese.

The Peruvian pressure did not stop, taking advantage of the errors in leaving Venezuela. At 36, Grimaldo took a right-footed shot from close range that was saved by Romo.

Despite dominating the match, Peru did not find its second conquest in the first 45.

– With Vinotinto flavor –

The team led by Argentine Fernando ‘Bocha’ Batista in the complement came out determined to try to turn the score around to avoid accumulating a second defeat in the qualifiers.

At 54, Jefferson Savarino scored a 1-1 tie for Venezuela with a right-footed shot. The goal was celebrated by the hundreds of Venezuelan migrants who arrived at the Nacional with their vinotinto shirts.

At 56, coach Juan Reynoso moved his bench and brought in midfielder Edison Flores to recover the central zone and seek victory.

But Venezuela began to grow in its offensive game, to the point that it was closer than the Inca eleven to achieving its second conquest, having Soteldo as a true nightmare for the local defense.

With two additional changes, Peru sought to put pressure but Venezuela began to close its goal well to preserve the tie. A result that leaves him among the first four places in the qualifier.

At 71, Darwin Machis took a long-distance shot that was saved by Gallese.

Batista, at 84, made two more changes to ensure the result.

On his side, Reynoso brought on Paolo Guerrero, but he never found the goal.

In the last minutes of the match Venezuela was close to winning the match, but the Peruvians closed their goal.

The Peruvian coach was left in debt, with only two points out of a total of 18 and with the credit exhausted in the face of fans clamoring for a replacement of the coach.

MATCH TIME, VENEZUELA VS PERU

• Mexico: 8:00 p.m.
• Peru, Ecuador and Colombia: 9:00 p.m.
• Venezuela, USA and Bolivia: 10:00 p.m.
• Chile, Uruguay Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil: 11:00 p.m.

WHICH CHANNEL TRANSMITS, VENEZUELA VS PERU

• In Peru: América TV (Channel 4), ATV (Channel 9) and Movistar Deportes (Channel 3)
• In Venezuela: Venevision

POSSIBLE ALIGNMENTS, VENEZUELA VS PERU

• Venezuela: Rafael Romo; Alexander González, Christian Makoun, Wilker Ángel, Miguel Navarro; José Martínez, Yangel Herrera, Soteldo, Cristian Casseres, Samuel Sosa; Salomón Rondón.
• Peru: Pedro Gallese, Aldo Corzo, Carlos Zambrano, Alexander Callens, Marcos López, Renato Tapia, Yoshimar Yotún, Piro Quispe, André Carrillo, Franco Zanelatto and Gianluca Lapadula.

VENEZUELA CALLED LIST

• Archers: Rafael Romo (Catholic University of Ecuador), Alaín Baroja (Caracas FC) and Joel Graterol (Panetolikos GFS).
• Defenses: Jon Aramburú (Real Sociedad), Alexander González (Caracas FC), Yordan Osorio (Parma), Nahuel Ferraresi (Sao Paulo), Wilker Ángel (Aucas), Christian Makoun (New England Revolution), Luis Mago (Banfield), Miguel Navarro ( Chicago Fire) and Roberto Rosales (Sport Recife).
• Frills: José Martínez (Philadelphia Union), Tomás Rincón (Santos FC), Junior Moreno (FC Cincinnati), Yangel Herrera (Girona FC), Cristian Casseres Jr. (Toulouse FC), Edson Castillo (Kaizer Chiefs), Jefferson Savarino (Real Salt Lake ), Samuel Sosa (Emelec), Rómulo Otero (Aucas), Eduard Bello (Mazatlán FC), Darwin Machis (Cádiz FC) and Yefferson Soteldo (Santos FC).
• Fronts: Salomón Rondón (River Plate), Eric Ramírez (Atlético Nacional) and Sergio Córdova (Vancouver Whitecaps).

Venezuela’s faith will be tested. After losing a 0-0 draw against Ecuador at home, Vinotinto hopes to take on a new push against Peru in search of an unprecedented World Cup qualification.

“It is a direct rival and we want to be up to par,” commented the coach of the Venezuelan soccer team, the Argentine Fernando ‘Bocha’ Batista, recalibrating his sights and directing it toward next Tuesday’s match in Lima against a rival in crisis. in which his coach, Juan Reynoso, tries to stay afloat in a sea of ​​criticism.

“Peru is going to be in need, because it has not been able to start the tie well. We must play an intelligent game,” Batista said at a press conference.

Despite the slowdown against Ecuador at the Monumental Stadium in Maturín, Venezuela is well placed in the standings of the South American World Cup qualifiers.

With 8 points in the first five dates, it occupies fourth place, behind the leader Argentina (12), Uruguay (10) and Colombia (9) and ahead of the five-time world champion Brazil (7). Venezuela is now in the direct qualification zone for the 2026 World Cup

Peru, in contrast, is bottom with just 1 of 15 possible units.

– “We have been there” –

Historically the ‘Cinderella’ of South America, Venezuela is the only country in the region that has never played in the World Cup, but its positive start has raised hopes that, this time, things will be different.

This, in addition, when the number of places in the area was expanded to six direct places and one for the play-offs.

Right back Alexander González, one of the key players in Venezuela’s pre-World Cup start, however, asked not to underestimate Peru.

“All qualifying matches are complicated. Even at the time, when we have been in the same position, sometimes they have not respected us and even so we have not been an easy rival for any of them,” González highlighted. “We hope to be in the best shape to be able to face this last qualifying match of the year and add points.”

After a ‘boom’ that made it take an evolutionary leap at the beginning of the 2000s, Venezuela fell back in the qualifiers for Russia-2018 and Qatar-2022, in the midst of federative conflicts after the ‘FIFA Gate’ scandal, returning to the last box.

With Batista, who took over as Vinotinto coach on March 10 after the surprise resignation of his compatriot José Pekerman, he has recovered his competitive level.

“When you can’t win, you shouldn’t lose either, and we continue to keep an undefeated record (as locals), which is important. We have to continue working for Tuesday,” said left back Miguel Navarro.

– A low and a doubt –

Batista will have to move pieces in the midfield for the visit to Peru, since he loses José ‘El Brujo’ Martínez due to an accumulation of yellow cards, while captain Tomás Rincón came out of Thursday’s game injured.

Martínez played as ‘5’ against Ecuador, accompanying Yangel Herrera, from Girona, and Cristian Cásseres Jr, from Toulouse, in midfield. Rincón entered as a substitute.

An alternative for the Argentine coach could be Junior Moreno, signed by FC Cincinnati in the MLS.

A possible return is in sight, that of center back Yordan Osorio, a bastion in defense, absent against Ecuador due to a small tear.

“I only had one training session (in preparation for the match in Maturín), but the week is long, we can recover and be in Lima,” declared Osorio. “I’m aiming for Peru. It’s going to be a complicated game, we’re going to need to be at 100%, and I hope to be ready these days to be able to collaborate.”