Estadio Monumental “U” is a football stadium in the Peruvian capital of Lima. It was built to provide a larger and more modern home for Club Universitario, a Lima based club.
Estadio Monumental “U” is located on the western edge of the city of Lima at about 13 kilometers from Lima’s historic center and 15 kilometers from the more upscale Miraflores area.
The stadium boasts a capacity of 80,093, which is the largest in the whole country. However, the stadium didn’t host a single match in the 2004 edition of Copa América due to the conflicts between the club and the organizers.
History
The Stadium was constructed by Gremco Progreso International. Universitario de Deportes are the home team as well as the owner of the entire sports complex. The stadium replaced the Estadio Lolo Fernandez in 2000, which had a capacity of 15,000 and is currently being used as the training ground and headquarters of the club.
On 2nd July 2000, the inaugural match was played between Universitario de Deportes and Sporting Cristal for the local Primera División, infront of more than 54,700 spectators.
The first match that the national team played here was on 2nd June 2001 against Ecuador which ended with Peru losing 2-1 in the 2002 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.
Major Matches and Events
The Peru National team played their FIFA World Cup Qualifiers in August 2017 in which they won 2-1 against Bolivia and eventually got qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Controversies
Peru is one of those countries which could go to any extent so that their team could win. The FIFA World Cup Qualifier in 2017 against New Zealand is the best example even though the match was not played here as the visitors suffered from lasers pointed at them.
In addition, till 2007 only one edition of the Peruvian Clásico was played here citing security concerns. However, in late 2008, the derby returned to the stadium.
