Peru, dreaming of a first triumph in 36 years, will try to halt a resurgent Colombia tonight in their Copa America quarter-final clash.
“Now we have Colombia. A tall order but we have to have faith we can get past them. Go Peru,” said Peruvian striker Paolo Guerrero, who plays his club football with Hamburg, on his Twitter account as Sergio Markarian’s Blanquirroja target a shock.
Recent meetings between the two have been tight affairs – they parted 1-1 in a Bogota friendly last November and World Cup qualifiers ended 1-0 to the Colombians on their home patch and 1-1 in Peru.
If the Peruvians, two-times champions, are to beat the 2001 winners, they will have to keep in check in-form striker Radamel Falcao, who this week revealed he had signed a two-year extension through to 2015 with Porto.
The forward, who broke the European goalscoring record for a single campaign when he netted 17 times en route to Europa League glory last season, also had his buyout clause raised to €45 million from €30 million – though the likes of England’s Chelsea remain admirers.
“It doesn’t matter who scores as long as we go through,” Falcao insisted on learning of the draw after his side won Group A to finish above hosts Argentina while Peru were one of the two best third-placed finishers.
With the Colombians yet to concede a goal and with Falcao on fire after two goals against Bolivia, Hernan Dario ‘Bolillo’ Gomez’s side would appear slight favourites.
Peru were keeping Juan Vargas in cotton wool as the Fiorentina wideman is carrying a leg muscle injury he suffered going into the tournament, although he expects to start.
Peru finished bottom of the last World Cup qualifying session and came to the Copa minus injured forwards Jefferson Farfan and Claudio Pizarro, but Markarian has managed to instill some self belief.
“Peru are good players – we just have to believe in ourselves,” said Vargas.
The winner of the encounter will take on either Argentina or Uruguay on July 19 at La Plata.
Tomorrow, Brazil face Paraguay and Chile take on Venezuela in the other quarters.