With the absences of Anderson Santamaría and Pedro Aquino in the Peruvian national team, Juan Reynoso decided to call up Carlos Ascues at the last minute and the player from Universidad César Vallejo will be present in the first double date of the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, in which we will face Paraguay away and Brazil at the National Stadium in Lima.
In this line, the question arises of why 'Cabezón' did not call up Jean Pierre Rhyner, who is an indisputable starter at FC Schaffhausen in the Swiss Second Division. The center back, who has already been called up to the Peruvian national team on previous occasions, usually plays the full 90 minutes for his club and has rarely been left out of the starting eleven, so he has great continuity.
Furthermore, the defender has expressed on several occasions his desire to play in the qualifiers with the Blanquirroja, so a call-up would not be a bad idea considering he is in a European club, which is top-level football. Even playing in a lower division is not a problem, as Ricardo Gareca used to call up Gianluca Lapadula when he played in Serie B, and now Juan Reynoso has even called up Christofer Gonzales and André Carrillo who play in the Saudi Arabian second tier.
So, in this regard, Jean Pierre Rhyner could perfectly well be one of the selected players for the start of the qualifiers. The advantage that Carlos Ascues could have had with the call-up is that the player from César Vallejo knows how to play both as a center back and as a midfielder, so he could serve as a replacement for Santamaría and Aquino.
What will Peru's starting eleven be against Paraguay?
On Thursday, September 7, Peru will visit Paraguay at 5:30 PM Lima time, and Juan Reynoso already has in mind the initial lineup to send to the Antonio Aranda Stadium in Ciudad del Este, which would be as follows: Pedro Gallese; Luis Advíncula, Luis Abram, Alexander Callens, Miguel Trauco; Renato Tapia, Yoshimar Yotún, Christofer Gonzales, André Carrillo, Joao Grimaldo, and Paolo Guerrero.