The Australian national team around St. Pauli professional Jackson Irvine suffered a severe setback in the World Cup qualifiers and has to fear for participation.
Hamburg/Doha – What a disappointment! St.-Pauli-Professional Jackson Irvine (28) is with the Australian national team in the World Cup Qualification against Oman did not go beyond a 2: 2 (1: 0).
Jackson Irvine (28, right) tries to snatch the ball away from Oman’s Salaah Said Al Yahyaei. © IMAGO/Xinhua
With the draw, the chances of a direct participation in the World Cup have dropped significantly. Because even before the match in Doha kicked off, it was clear that only a win would help the Socceroos to get hold of one of the coveted tickets for the tournament in Qatar on their own.
Because in the afternoon Japan won 2-0 over leaders Saudi Arabia and thus pulled away from Australia.
With Irinve in the starting XI, everything initially went according to plan for the Australians. Jamie Maclaren (28, formerly SV Darmstadt 98) put Australia ahead with a penalty after 15 minutes.
But after 54 minutes the big setback followed. Abdullah Fawaz (25) equalized with a dream goal from 17 meters.
Ten minutes before the final whistle Aaron Moy (31) provided the lead again. With a powerful left-footed shot, he scored the much-acclaimed 2-1 win for Australia.
But Oman hit back again. Once again the goal scorer was Abdullah Fawaz, who converted a penalty kick to make it 2-2 in the 89th minute. With the result and a bitter disappointment for Australia, it stayed until the final whistle.
Due to the draw, Australia have had two wins in the last two matchdays and also hope for mistakes from the competition.
With 15 points, the Socceroos are third behind Saudi Arabia (19 points) and Japan (18). Only the first two teams in the group qualify directly for the finals, the third team has to go to the play-offs.
And it is exactly against the two nations placed ahead of them at the end of March. First up is the showdown against Japan (March 23) before the final matchday against Saudi Arabia (March 29) could decide everything.