Haiti vs Peru: La Blanquirroja Stun Haiti With Two Late Goals to Complete Dramatic Comeback

The Peru national football team achieved a spectacular remontada against Haiti by a score of 2-1 in an international friendly match played at Nu Stadium in Miami on Friday night. This match was seen as a good competitive build-up for the summer period since the match appeared as if it would end in favour of the Haitians until the last ten minutes of play.

Haiti was quick to start and took control of the match during the first half. After some aggressive play by their team, Haitian striker Wilson Isidor scored in the 15th minute of the match, putting his team up 1-0 in the match. After the goal, the strong Haitian defence continued to be the blockade between the Peru players and the goal, and they were doing their job pretty well, although the match saw a high number of yellow cards being issued.

The balance of play dramatically changed during the latter part of the game. In the 80th minute, Peru made use of a corner kick to their advantage. Replacement Yoshimar Yotún took the corner kick from dangerous range, and following Fabio Gruber's initial shot being blocked by the goalkeeper, Peru got their equaliser when defender Renzo Garcés found the net with a close-range effort. Just three minutes later, Peru turned the tide of the game around completely. Once again utilising a corner kick taken by Yotún, Peru's midfielder Jairo Vélez lashed an overhead kick into the top corner.

Although there was a last-ditch effort by the Haitians to score an equaliser in the four added minutes, Haiti were unable to penetrate the strong defence set up by the Peruvians. The defeat for Haiti will be very discouraging since it comes ahead of their first match in the World Cup where they will face off against Scotland on June 13. On the other hand, this victory will be greatly encouraging for Peru, who have been unable to qualify for the World Cup.

Sportscape believes that Peru was simply too much for Haiti in the closing stages of the game. Although Haiti showed great discipline in the opening half of the game, their inability to defend against set plays will be something World Cup teams will surely capitalise on.