Uruguay's Bielsa Under Fire As Peru Hope For Home Upset In World Cup Qualifiers

Winless Peru welcome an impressive Uruguay side to Lima in CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying on Friday night.

The hosts are rooted to the bottom of the standings as we approach the midway point, while Uruguay will feel confident of reaching a fifth straight World Cup, having already beaten both Argentina and Brazil.

As is so often the case, Marcelo Bielsa is having a huge impact in his current venture, and thankfully for Uruguay, it has been a positive one so far.

Despite losing to 10-man Colombia in the Copa America semi-finals, Bielsa is set to lead La Celeste to yet another World Cup, with the dreaded memories of missing out in 2006 are now long in the past.

However, as is also often the case with Bielsa, controversy follows, and the bombshell quotes from Luis Suarez over the past week have stirred up off-field drama.

The Uruguay legend claimed that there is a toxic atmosphere around Bielsa, and he has caused rifts and divisions within the squad, and while business goes on as usual, that is certainly something to keep an eye on in the coming months.

There was great drama surrounding the aforementioned loss to Colombia, as the brawl which ensued following the final whistle meant Bielsa was without most of his key players for the two qualifiers last month.

Nevertheless, Uruguay came away with two 0-0 draws against Paraguay and Venezuela, and even though they dropped to third behind Colombia, they are still the continent's top scorers with 13, and they have now gone over eight hours without conceding in qualifying - since their clash with Colombia on matchday three.

While Peru are currently in dire straits though, Uruguay will know this is not an easy place to visit, as they have won on just one of their last five competitive visits.

The hosts have only lost two of their last 10 qualifiers at home, but they have both come in this current campaign, as Peru look set to miss out once again.

Jorge Fossati's side remain at the foot of CONMEBOL qualifying, having scored only twice and taken just three points so far.

For a team that reached the 2018 finals and the 2019 Copa America final, it has been a sharp drop off for the Blanquirroja, who are already six points off the intercontinental playoff spot, the route which they went down in 2022 qualification, losing at the final hurdle.

Peru did hold Colombia to a draw here last month, as Luis Diaz's late strike denied them a win, but they were poor in Ecuador a few days later, losing 1-0 and registering just two shots across the 90 minutes.

Peru are without some of their most experienced internationals, as record cap holder Yoshimar Yotun remains out long term and Leganes' Renato Tapia picked up an injury late last month.

Fossati will also be without Miguel Trauco and Anderson Santamaria at the back, and attacking trio Gianluca Lapadula, Yordy Reyna and Santiago Ormeno, as the manager has handed 35-year-old Horatio Calcaterra a recall, making him the oldest member of the squad.

Suarez's last appearance for Uruguay came in last month's fixtures as he has now retired, and Bielsa is still without a number of key players due to the sanctions handed out following the Copa America brawl.

Rodrigo Bentancur will miss both games this month as he serves the second half of his four-game ban, while Jose Maria Gimenez and Matias Olivera will serve the last of their three-game suspensions here, so both are in the squad ahead of the clash versus Ecuador next week.

Darwin Nunez was handed the most severe penalty, but after serving two of his five-game ban, the Court of Arbitration for Sport has temporarily suspended it as they investigate the matter, making the Liverpool man available for this month's matches.

Ronald Araujo is also banned but his injury makes him unavailable anyway, while there are further defensive problems, with Sebastian Caceres and Lucas Olaza being forced to pull out with their own setbacks.Peru possible starting lineup:Gallesse; M Araujo, Zambrano, Callens; Advincula, Cartagena, Calcaterra, Pena, Lopez; Valera, Flores

Uruguay possible starting lineup:Rochet; Nandez, Varela, Bueno, Saracchi; Valverde, Ugarte, De Arrascaeta; Pellistri, Nunez, M Araujo

There have been just six goals in the last five meetings between these two nations, and Peru's profligacy matched with Uruguay's impressive defensive record makes a low-scoring away win look most likely.

Sitting bottom of the standings, Peru did show some promising signs against Colombia last month, but even though they have the benefit of home advantage, their winless run against Uruguay is set to extend to five matches here.For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.