Getting to the World Cup is important stuff, especially for sides that don’t always get to play in the biggest tournament in football and last night Peru booked the final spot in next summer’s party in Russia.
World Cup qualification started quite some time back, in March 2015 with Timor-Leste v Mongolia in case you were wondering exactly when, and over two years later all 32 teams have been decided.
The final spots came down to the play-offs. As well as European sides facing each other for their final four spots there was also games between Asian representative Australia and North American side Honduras whilst Oceana’s New Zealand faced South American side Peru.
Yesterday the Australian’s booked their place with a 3-1 win over Honduras, thanks to a hat-trick from Aston Villa midfielder Mile Jedinak, after a 0-0 draw in the first leg.
Overnight Peru and New Zealand also started off at 0-0 after a first leg draw and Peru won 2-0 thanks to goals from Jefferson Farfan and Christian Ramos to make it to a World Cup for the first time since 1982.
Of course the tournament next summer, just 209 days away to be precise, will be missing some usual stalwarts like Netherlands, Italy and Costa Rica. The British Isles only be represented by England so Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales will be backing them, right?
The way the pots are it looks unlikely we’ll be getting a ‘Group of Death’ when the draw rolls around on December 1st. Even in pot one teams will feel that both the hosts and Poland are beatable.
Seeds will be hoping to get Peru in their group, or England of course.
Everton sacks Ronald Koeman
Everton have sacked Ronald Koeman after their 5-2 loss at home to Arsenal on Super Sunday saw them slip into the relegation zone.
The club spent heavily in the summer on Michael Keane, Davy Klaassen, Jordan Pickford, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Wayne Rooney, but now lie 18th in the table having made their third-worst start to a Premier League campaign.
The loss at Goodison Park on Sunday was Everton’s fifth consecutive match without a victory, with the Toffees having won just two league games this season, while they are also bottom of their Europa League group after two defeats and a draw in their first three matches.
Koeman said before the Arsenal game that Everton’s owners had faith in him to turn his side’s poor form around. However, the club’s hierarchy released a statement on Monday announcing that the Dutchman had left his position.
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