Edison Flores was with his team-mates at Danish club Aalborg BK when the footballing gods decreed that Denmark would be drawn with Peru in Group C at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia.
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We had an away game and we all sat down to watch the Final Draw, he told FIFA.com. “It was funny. Everyone was laughing and joking.
The only Peruvian playing in the Danish Superliga, he added: It helped me relax. I’d never experienced a draw like that and I was nervous.
As Flores recalled, some of that Danish laughter was tinged with delight: They wanted Peru or Panama in their group, or both of them even, because they felt it would give them a better chance of getting through to the last 16. And it just so happens that we’ve got them in our opening game!
That opening game will see the two sides meet in Saransk on 16 June. The man they call El Oreja said the Danes are feeling confident: They’ve got players at some big clubs in Europe, but it’s on the pitch where they’ll have to show that they’re better than us.
So how did the 24-year-old left-footed midfielder react to the draw? “The first thing I said to them was that they weren’t going to have an easy time against us,” he replied with a smile. “Then I said that I always want more and that I was going to try to beat them.”
Flores, who moved to Aalborg in August 2016, explained that the Danes have started to see Peru in a different light over the last six months: They’re keeping tabs on us now, but what happened before was only to be expected. We’re a team with young players who’ve just played in their first qualifying competition and have only just started making themselves known to the world.
Whatever the case may be, the midfielder is not lacking in motivation: “I want to do my very best for Peru and if I score, then I’m going to shout about it. They’ve already told me, though, that if we beat them, I can forget about going back to Denmark,” he added with a laugh.
