Peruvian National Team qualifies for the World Cup

The Peruvian National Team achieved its goal: it qualified for the 2018 World Cup in Russia and broke the 36-year streak without participating in the most important international tournament. But that's not all, thanks to its tenth place in the FIFA Ranking, prior to the playoffs, Peru will be part of pot 2 in the group stage draw, alongside the world's top teams. Do you know what that means?

Not having qualified directly for the World Cup through the South American Qualifiers prevented Peru from being a seeded team. However, it will be in pot 2 for the draw, together with top teams like Spain, Switzerland, England, Croatia, and Mexico, which it will avoid facing in the tournament's group stage in Russia.

Peru qualifies for the World Cup! It defeated New Zealand and is the last team to make it to Russia 2018.

In addition to them, the Peruvian National Team will not face any South American rivals (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Uruguay), so the pool of strong opponents in the group stage is reduced to the European teams: Russia (host), Germany, Portugal, Belgium, and France, who will be in pot 1 for the draw.

Peru at the World Cup: draw pots

The best scenario
Another fact is that Peru, being in pot 2 for the World Cup group stage draw, can be placed in the 'group of death' with two European opponents, or another group with only one team from the 'Old Continent'. This is because UEFA, with 14 teams in the tournament, requires the tournament to have seven groups of eight teams, including two teams from that region.

On December 1st, the draw for the World Cup group stage will take place at the Kremlin in Moscow. That's when we will find out which group Peru will be in, in the most important international tournament after 36 years.