Nov 30

France vs Peru 1982

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CLASSIC UFWC TITLE MATCH:

France 0-1 Peru

28 April 1982 Friendly, Parc des Princes, Paris Scorer: Oblitas France, like Brazil in the early 80s, had a team containing some of the best players international football has ever seen. Maxime Bossis, Manuel Amoros, Jean Tigana, Dominique Rocheteau and Michel Platini all played in this game. The French had qualified for the 1982 World Cup finals, despite a couple of slip-ups. Peru had also qualified, impressively topping their group with an unbeaten record. They qualified at the expense of former UFWC champions Uruguay, who they beat 2-1 in August 1981 to take the title. And Peru had their own star player in Juan Carlos Oblitas, the forward with the rather odd nickname of El Ciego, or The Blind One. France started brightly, with Platini predictably pulling the strings in midfield, but were given a clear indication of the talents of the visitors when Oblitas had an excellent goal inexplicably disallowed, apparently for offside. The game remained scoreless until the 82nd minute, and it was that man Oblitas who scored what would turn out to be the winner, driving the ball under French keeper Dominique Barotelli from a wide angle. It was a famous victory on French soil for the Peruvians. They retained the UFWC title and took it into the World Cup tournament in Spain. There, they drew with Cameroon and Italy, but then comprehensively lost the title to an excellent Poland side in a 5-1 defeat. This is an edited extract from the Unofficial Football World Champions book, which tells the story of the UFWC via more than 100 classic title matches. Get more details here.