Optimism ahead of the qualification was perhaps a little low in the Peruvian camp, especially as they had not set the world alight during the Copa América tournament in Brazil, where they’d avoided defeat in three from four matches, but still not won a single tie. 

Their Brazilian manager José Macia would come under some severe criticism during this qualification. There was little in terms of consistency in his team selections, and he had even seemed unable to find a prefered formation. Indeed, Macia, or ‘Pepe’ as he was nicknamed, would get the sack after three matches, games which had all been lost. However, there had been a major improvement for the visit of Bolivia, where they might have lost, but they’d been very unfortunate to do so. Ultimately, the penalty miss from acting captain Pedro Requena nine minutes from time had cost them at least a point. 

Peru opened their qualification with a journey to neighbouring Bolivia, and in the infamous La Paz altitude, they succumbed to a 2-1 defeat. The outcome, a home win, had been richly deserved, and only a small handful of players had left with some level of integrity. Goalkeeper Purizaga, who would excel throughout the qualification, was one of them. He’d saved a first half penalty from Bolivia left-back Roberto Pérez with the score still 0-0. Young, composed midfield man José del Solar would actually put Peru in front just before half time, assisted by Requena’s header following a deadball situation, but shortly after the hosts were level following another penalty. Peru’s right hand side had been abysmal, with neither of full-back José Carranza or wide midfielder, teenager Juan Reynoso, reaching expected levels. 

Next up were a defensively very strong Uruguay team, who arrived in Lima for their opening qualifier. Despite Peru enjoying a fair share of possession, they could not make telling use from it, and they were too lightweight up front to breach the centre-back partnership of Gutiérrez and de León. Uruguay were quick in their transitions, and Peru were hit on the break more than the two occasions from which the visitors had scored. 

Having implemented 4-4-2 and 5-3-2 in their first two qualifiers, ‘Pepe’ switched to a more attacking 4-3-3 formation in their third game, the one at home to Bolivia. This had probably seemed the most winnable of the lot beforehand, and as it turned out, Peru were quite unlucky not to claim at least a point. They had pinned their visitors back for large spells, but just could not find their goalscoring touch. That was apart from Andrés Gonzáles’ early second half strike, of course, which was a perfectly executed counter-attack of their own, which had involved Alfonso Yáñez and Eduardo Rey Muñoz in the build-up.

Despite the vastly improved performance, ‘Pepe’ was released from his duty, and so it became his assistant Percy Rojas who was made temporary chief for their final game, the journey to Uruguay to play a ‘Celeste’ which only needed to win in order to secure qualification for next year’s World Cup. Should Peru have managed to snatch a point, they’d have helped Bolivia reach the tournament proper instead. With a fourth formation of the qualification, and indeed also a fourth starting captain, Peru were looking in confident mood until they had Reynoso sent off for a stupid punch on Bengoechea’s cheek on the half-hour. In first half injury time, after the hosts had had various goalscoring opportunities already, Peru let man of the moment Sosa convert with his deadly left foot. An expected loss seemed on.

Peru came out at the start of the second half and gave it a go, but they would never come closer to scoring than from Jorge Hirano’s effort eight minutes after the restart. After the Bolivia based forward had rounded goalkeeper Pereira, all he needed to do was wrap his left foot around the ball and roll it into the back of that empty net. He couldn’t. The ball had accumulated slightly higher speed from Hirano’s previous touch than the forward had brought into consideration, and so, even if he stretched, he failed to squeeze it into the net for an equalizer. Sosa added his and Uruguay’s second not long after, and the game was gone. So, too, was Peru’s qualification, which ended in four defeats from four. 

With no further games scheduled, the Peruvian FA could take their time before a decision would be made on who would succeed ‘Pepe’/Rojas. Given the form of some players, predominantly Purizaga, Requena and del Solar, a few of them would surely be kept on by the next management team. However, with no World Cup qualification in sight, and with the next major event being the 1991 version of Copa América, everyone’s international future appeared very unclear. 

Final position: 3 (out of 3)
Total record: 4 0 0 4 2-8 0
Home record: 2 0 0 2 1-4 0
Away record: 2 0 0 2 1-4 0