Australia’s World Cup hopes remain afloat

CAIRO - 9 June 2017: Australia kept their hopes up for qualifying directly to the FIFA 2018 World Cup after winning 3-2 over Saudi Arabia in the Asian World Cup qualifiers on Thursday.

Australia accumulated 16 points, placing it at the top of its group with Saudi Arabia and Japan; however, Japan has played one match less than both teams.

Australia’s first goal came at the seven minute mark, and was made by Tomi Juric who exploited a mistake from the Saudi goalkeeper Yasser Al Mosailem. The equalizer came from Salem al-Dawsari, who scored the equalizer for Saudi Arabia in the 23rd minute.

Juric scored his team’s second goal, but Mohamed Al-Sahlawi levelled out the game before the end of the first half.

Tom Rogic managed to secure his team the third and final goal of the match, propelling the team to the top three of its group.

Australia and Saudi Arabia played in Group B alongside Iraq, Thailand, UAE and Japan. The top two teams of each group qualify to compete in the FIFA 2018 Russian World Cup, while third place teams must compete against their counterparts form another group. The winner of this bout advances to the inter-confederation play-offs.