Socceroos qualify for World Cup after bombshell shootout decision
In wild, euphoric scenes Australia bested Peru 5-4 in a nailbiting penalty shootout in Doha on Tuesday morning (AEST) to complete what coach Graham Arnold said is “one of the greatest achievements ever”.To get more news about Bdlive, you can visit bdlive.vn official website.
November’s World Cup will be Australia’s fifth consecutive appearance at the world’s biggest sporting event.Arnold made a bombshell selection gamble in the final minute of extra time by taking captain Mat Ryan out of the game to put Andy Redmayne in goals — and it proved to be one of the greatest tactical decisions Australian football has ever known.
It said everything about the magnitude of the Socceroos’ achievement that Arnold became emotional and was briefly unable to speak when interviewed on Channel 10 after the win.“I called out Anthony Albanese the other day to give everyone a day off to celebrate this because I believe this is one of the greatest achievements ever to qualify for this World Cup the way we had to do things,” he said.
Arnold tried to give his players the spotlight — but his success in the face of so much criticism was one of the big talking points to emerge from the contest.
He also confirmed the decision to drop Ryan for Redmayne was made for the simple reason of trying to get in the Peru team’s head.
The Socceroos trailed early in the penalty shootout when Martin Boyle’s first shot was saved, however, Aaron Mooy, Craig Goodwin, Ajdin Hjrustic, Jamie Maclaren and Awer Mabil all converted from the spot.Redmayne was the fairytale hero at the end as he made two saves to send Australia to the World Cup.
Socceroos players went bananas as they rushed to celebrate with Redmayne after the save — and there were tears of joy seen on sections of the team.
Redmayne’s moment will go down in Australian sporting history — and so will Arnold’s decision to roll the dice.
Socceroos great Andy Harper applauded Arnold’s performance after the coach was very nearly sacked earlier this year. Arnold’s contract now extends through to the end of the World Cup campaign.Questions of the coach. A queue of people waiting to take a baseball bat to the coach. And Redmayne saves the team, the campaign and now Australia is off to a fifth consecutive World Cup.”
“A massive acknowledgement to Graham Arnold. What he has had to endure as a coach to get to this point over many years, what a crowning glory for him.
“People have got opinions on this and that on the other, but when you come to the end of a penalty shoot-out, if they didn’t win that they would be the other side of the coin, but the fact of the matter is the team under him prevailed, he guided the team to World Cup football, the biggest sporting event on the planet, and massive congratulations.”
Arnold’s qualification campaign involved 20 matches beginning in 2019 — with 16 of those matches played overseas.