Socceroos overcome crazy twist with wondergoal

1 year ago 94

DOHA: For astir an hour, Australia thought a gully would beryllium capable - but erstwhile Tunisia went up aft 58 minutes against a second-string France team, everything changed.

You could spot Graham Arnold being fixed the quality successful the dugout - suddenly, helium knew that his squad needed a goal.

Less than 2 minutes later, Mat Leckie obliged.

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With the Danes pushing precocious up the field, Riley McGree's done shot enactment the Melbourne City prima into acres of space, albeit with defender Joakim Maehle s inactive to woody with.

Leckie scores superb opener

Leckie twisted and turned until helium could shingle his antheral agelong capable to rotation a left-footed decorativeness into the country of Kasper Schmeichel's net, arsenic the Green and Gold Army erupted.

"He had nary close to score, and I said that to him conscionable then," Leckie's nine teammate Jamie Maclaren told reporters afterwards.

"He had 2 defenders, nary close to enactment it successful the backmost of the nett - but we did our enactment earlier the crippled of however you tin people goals, and we knew that they were going to propulsion astatine immoderate constituent to effort and get a goal, and erstwhile you've got the gait and acquisition and nous that Lecks has got...fantastic goal, and you could spot the mode we've celebrated."

It was a acold outcry from the ambiance of the Tunisia game, with the tens of thousands of North African fans replaced by a fistful of Danes, and a batch of bare seats.

Such was the assemblage sound you could perceive the players astatine times - but surely not erstwhile Leckie's decorativeness recovered the net, and you would person thought that each azygous idiosyncratic of the 41,232 successful attendance were from Australia.

A France extremity would person calmed the nerves, good and genuinely - but it didn't come. The Danes, possibly alert of the information that adjacent a gully was useless to them, didn't supply excessively overmuch firepower successful the dying stages, prevention for 1 changeable that was blocked by a sliding Harry Souttar.

In all, the world's tenth-ranked squad struggled to make overmuch much than fractional chances, with Mat Ryan forced into 1 crisp prevention successful the archetypal half, but that was astir it.

The quality of six minutes of stoppage clip was met with a large groan from the Australian fans, but adjacent then, determination wasn't overmuch to interest astir arsenic Graham Arnold's squad calmly saw the crippled out.

This is now, nary substance what, Australia's champion World Cup. It's the archetypal clip they've won aggregate games, the archetypal clip they've scored successful each 3 radical matches, and it equals their best-ever finish, the circular of 16 successful 2006.

Can they spell further than the legendary crop? We'll find retired successful a fewer days, and arsenic destiny would person it, that crippled volition beryllium astatine the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium.

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