Gareca: More to come from Peru

Ricardo Gareca praised his Peru players for their work at the Copa America, but still expects the team to improve in the future.

Peru sealed a third-place finish for the second consecutive edition of the South American tournament as they beat Paraguay 2-0 in the play-off at the Estadio Ester Roa in Concepcion on Friday.

Gareca’s men came through Group C, which included Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela, and the coach expressed his pleasure at the performances his team produced in Chile.

However, Gareca insisted Peru should not rest on their laurels, telling reporters: “I am very happy and pleased for the guys, because they gave everything and have behaved exemplarily in all aspects.

“It is a good position that we have obtained. We delivered everything, we could not have done more. But in the future we will continue getting better.

“We won against a tough opponent in Paraguay. We had intentions, but credit to Paraguay they did not leave us to grow into the game.

“In the second half we adapted ourselves better and I think we ended up deservedly winning.”

Peru striker Paolo Guerrero, who added to Andre Carrillo’s opener late in the match, said: “The objective was to reach the knockout stages. Hopefully all of Peru is proud of this great work.

“The win is important. We knew that Paraguay would be a strong opponent, but we kept calm, held onto the ball and the first goal helped us a lot.

“The victory is dedicated to all of our families.”