Football: Peru victory against All Whites marred by 'disgusting act'

A screengrab of All Whites goalkeeper Stefan Marinobvic during the playoff match in Lima. Photo / Twitter

Peru's World Cup playoff victory against New Zealand has been marred by accusations of spectators shining lasers into the eyes of All Whites players - including goalkeeper Stefan Marinovic.

Images of Marinovic and Bill Tuiloma with a green light shining on them surfaced on social media shortly after the final whistle.

Peru secured their first World Cup finals berth in over 30 years by beating the battling visitors 2-0 at Estadio Nacional through goals to Jefferson Farfan and Christian Ramos.

All Whites coach Anthony Hudson and seasoned defender Andrew Durante expressed their frustration at the Peruvians' off-field tactics to the Herald after the match.

Bill Tuiloma. Photo / Twitter

Some fans have labelled the acts "disgusting", while a number of All Whites supporters took to Twitter to voice their disapproval.

Disgusting use of Laser Pointers by Peru Fans #PERvNZL pic.twitter.com/QEwGj5N0hO

— mikey (@mikeymifsud) November 16, 2017

Hey Peru, NZ is ranked 122 and you are 10th. Do you really need to be shining lasers at the keeper? #PERvNZL

— Paul Sutherland (@paulninja) November 16, 2017

Peru and their dirty tricks, extends to their fans (lasers) and players (faking injury). They are clearly the better team, but the fact they resort to such abhorrent sportsmanship makes me hate them even more. I hope the Kiwis snare a last minute equaliser, I really do! #PERvNZL

— Tony Persoglia (@dalmanac) November 16, 2017

This is the latest incident of unsportsmanlike conduct the All Whites travelling party have had to endure over the past 72 hours.

Earlier on Thursday, three military jets conducted a spectacular low flying swoop over the All Whites' team hotel in Lima - a seeming continuation of intimidation after an ear-splitting fireworks display took place outside the hotel at 3am local time.

The New Zealand team are based in the JW Marriott hotel, in one of the most upper class areas of the capital on the coast.

Durante said the Peruvians "used every trick in the book".

"We knew that they would throw everything at us and they did," Durante said.

"We knew what we were going to be in for. They used every trick in the book to try and put us off."

The estimated 40,000 fans in the stadium made communicating with teammates almost impossible, Durante said.

"It was really hard to communicate with each other, trying to scream at the players, it was very difficult.

"We had a strong mindset that we wouldn't let any of that [the lasers] affect us [and] we can't use any of that as any reasons [for the loss]."

The team's arrival in Lima was delayed by almost three hours, after what looks like a curious intervention by local authorities.

Then the bus that took the team from Jorge Chavez airport to the hotel was also strangely slow, taking more than twice as long as it normally should have at that time of night.

Hudson called the behaviour of fans "poor".

"I'm always really honest and I probably shouldn't be at times, but I think it's been poor," he said.

"We got on the airplane and I asked the stewardess how long it was to Peru and she said, "We're not going to Peru, we're going to Chile!

"Ever since then, it's been unbelievable. We didn't sleep at all last night with the fireworks.

"Today I thought I'd grab a quick hour's sleep by the pool and all of a sudden all these jet fighter planes are flying past and the pilots are taking selfies in the planes with their Peru shirts on."

The Herald reported earlier that traditional Peruvian shamans and witchdoctors put a curse on the All Whites ahead of the match.

Some fans told the Herald they were embarrassed by these antics.