Soccer-Peru seal World Cup playoff berth with 2-0 win over Paraguay

LIMA (Reuters) -Peru sealed a World Cup playoff spot on Tuesday after a 2-0 win over Paraguay secured fifth place in the South American qualifying group.

Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay had already secured South America’s four automatic spots.

Peru will meet either the United Arab Emirates or Australia, who play the Asian confederation playoff in Doha on June 7, for a place in Qatar. The inter-confederation playoff will take place in Doha on June 13 or 14.

"Tonight's game was a joy for the whole country but there is still one more step to take," midfielder Christian Cueva said. "As from tomorrow we'll be focused on the playoff."

Peru also had to go through a playoff to reach the last World Cup in Russia, defeating New Zealand over two legs to qualify for their first finals since Spain in 1982.

On Tuesday, the Andean side started the night with 21 points, one more than Colombia and two ahead of Chile, knowing that a win over Paraguay in the final round of qualifying would be enough to wrap up the playoff spot.

They went ahead with just four minutes gone, Gianluca Lapadula running on to a defence-splitting pass from Cueva to poke the ball in off the post.

Three minutes before halftime it was 2-0, Cueva the architect again. His work outside a packed penalty box led to a cross finished off by Yoshimar Yotun.

The home side controlled the second half without making many more chances and were content to see the game out and send the capacity crowd at the National stadium into raptures at the final whistle.

Ricardo Gareca's team did not look like they would be in contention for Qatar early on in the group, only getting their first win in their sixth game.

But three wins in a row against Bolivia, Venezuela and Colombia