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Writer's pictureKieran Hawes

Can Australia really go all the way?

Australia are coming off the back of a 4-0 win in their round of 16 tie against Indonesia in their quest to win the Asian Cup.

Australia started their Asian Cup journey with a fixture in the Ahmed Bin Ali stadium against India in which they came out victorious.


The game was just minutes in when Australia went close when Craig Gordon curled a free kick in and it had then just narrowly missed the head of Mitch Duke and then they sustained the pressure keeping India in their own half of the pitch.


But then after 16 minutes India had finally got their chances which saw some good play from Poojary saw him get free down the right hand side of the pitch and then played the ball into the box when it found the head of a diving Sunil Chhetri who missed the goal.


But the 2nd half finally saw Australia capitalise on the multiple missed opportunities that they missed in the 1st half by scoring thanks to Gurpreet pushing the ball straight to Irvine who slotted it home and helped put Australia 1-0 up. Then in the 69th minute they secured the win when Bos was able to just tap it in from close range.



This game was a very close game with very few opportunities for goals and it took until the 59th minute for Australia to score thanks to a well-taken goal from Irvine. There was some good build-up play from Boyle who went past Ramadan before setting up Irvine to tap it into the back of the net.


However, Australia had a big scare not that far from full-time after a long-range effort from Al Ajaan was initially saved but almost spilt into the Australian net. They won the game 1-0 against Syria.


What a game to finish the group stage which saw Australia draw 1-1 with Uzbekistan and this then confirmed that they have qualified for the round of 16.


Australia had multiple opportunities in the first half but again failed to convert the chances and then in added time a handball by Xamrobekov gave Australia the golden opportunity to finally take the lead and upsteps Boyle who calmly slotted it home to put Socceroos ahead going into half-time.


Then in the 78th minute Uzbekistan equalised after a brilliant cross from Masharipov found the head of Turg'unboyev who scored a vital goal for the underdogs. The game ended with both teams taking a point.


Finally, Australia met Indonesia in the Round of 16 and they thought that this game was going to be challenging and for them but it proved to be the complete opposite as they eased past Indonesia thanks to goals from Boyle, Goodwin and Souttar and an own goal from Elkan Baggott.


This saw the Socceroos through to the Quarter-Finals.


Australia await the winner of the round of 16 tie between Saudi Arabia and Korea Republic which will be played tomorrow and the Quarter-Final tie is scheduled for 2nd February.










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