Uruguay – Peru. Mark O’Haire’s prediction

New FIFA president Gianni Infantino will be present at the Estadio Centenario as Uruguay look to cement their place in the top-four with a home win over struggling Peru.

La Celeste picked up a well-earned point at Brazil on Friday night having fallen 2-0 behind in Recife. Boss Oscar Tabarez was without three of his first-choice back four – centre-halves Diego Godin and Jose Maria Gimenez plus right-back Maxi Pereira – but after switching from 4-4-2 to 4-1-4-1 at the interval, Uruguay clicked back into gear.

Tabarez’s troops were being exposed down the left-hand side but Edinson Cavani’s selfless work rate eliminated those problems whilst Luis Suarez – back in the sky blue jersey for the first time since the World Cup – posed plenty of problems on the shoulder of the attack.

Pereira is back in the fold for this fixture and Uruguay should be more than capable of justifying their short pre-match prices by blowing Peru away in Montevideo. Since 2011, La Celeste have W6-D3-L0 when hosting World Cup qualifiers and the 2.05 available for Uruguay to clear the -1 handicap hurdle is advised.

Peru’s qualification hopes are looking remote after taking just four points from their first five fixtures and the lowly visitors are without key players Jefferson Farfan, Carlos Zambrano, Juan Manuel Vargas and Josepmar Ballon here.

La Blanquirroja needed a late equaliser from substitute Raul Ruidiaz when welcoming Venezuela to Lima on Thursday night and Ricardo Gareca’s travellers have a wretched away record to overcome.

Across the last 11 years, Peru have W0-D1-L22 on their World Cup qualifying travels – 16 of those 22 defeats were by a margin of at least two goals with their last two visits to Uruguay ending in an aggregate loss of 2-10.