The former technical director of the Peruvian national team, Ricardo Gareca, referred to the playoff match against Australia, in which the national team lost on penalties and lost the chance to be in Qatar 2022, which would have been their second consecutive World Cup.
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In a conversation with sports journalist Eddie Fleischman for the web program 'Full Deporte', the 'Tiger' recalled the difficulties that the team experienced both in the qualifying rounds and in the lead-up to the playoff match.
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"The qualifying rounds were problematic from all points of view, injured players, we couldn't count on players like Paolo Guerrero or Jefferson Farfán who gave us important goals, Yotún had surgery, Carrillo had surgery at the last moment. The guys were solving it but unfortunately the match against Australia was not our best match", he said.
Regarding the match in question, Gareca stated that the preparation was not optimal and, compared to Australia, they arrived at a disadvantage.
"The qualifying rounds were very problematic for us. I'm not going to say that's why we were eliminated but it was a very difficult year with the pandemic, without fans, we went to play the playoff there and we had to play a friendly in Barcelona to try to level things with them", he said.
"A week before us, they (Australia) had played two finals, with a completely different morale boost than ours. We had played a friendly, while they had played a final at the stadium where we were going to play, we couldn't even set foot on the field", he added.
The Argentine strategist also spoke about the decision to leave Gabriel Costa out of the squad and the process of selecting the penalty takers.
"Those are things that are decisions (leaving out Costa), what happens is that in the final stretch we leaned that way. All the questioning is valid, when you only have one match it's a concern because you have to be completely clear-headed, in two matches, which is what should have happened, it always gives you room for correction, but in one match maybe I didn't have the lucidity to see who were the guys who should have been there", he clarified.
"There is always consultation, seeing who is doing well. There is a list but the mood also counts. Everyone was willing", he added regarding the penalties.