Australia‘s path to the 2022 World Cup is no clearer, despite a comprehensive 4-0 win over Vietnam last night.
A failure to win against Vietnam would have all-but-assured Australia would be forced to take the long road to Qatar, and after an early disallowed goal and a frustrating open 30 minutes, many feared the worst.
Instead, Jamie Maclaren broke the deadlock on the half hour mark, Tom Rogic grabbed a second before halftime, and Craig Goodwin and Riley McGree scored within five minutes of each other in the second half to secure a comfortable win.
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“We knew the significance of the game in terms of qualification and the performance of the team,” Rogic said afterwards.
“We maybe got a bit sloppy in the second half but overall it was a good day’s work.
Unfortunately for the Socceroos, both Japan and Saudi Arabia also secured wins overnight, leaving Graham Arnold’s men in third spot and facing a longer route to Qatar with only the top two teams in the group qualifying directly.
Australia are one point behind Japan and five behind Saudi Arabia, with each team having three games left to play.
However, those two play each other on Tuesday night, ahead of Australia’s match with Oman on Wednesday morning – the Socceroos’ campaign then finishes with a massive clash against Japan in Sydney, and a trip to Saudi Arabia five days later.
If Australia do finish third in their group they will play a play-off against the third-placed team from the other Asian qualifying group – which is likely to be the UAE – before taking on the fifth-placed South American team.
South American qualifying is incredibly close as always, with only Brazil and Argentina already qualified and Venezuela out of contention. The remaining seven nations are all in with a shot of either making it directly or playing Australia.
Peru currently occupy fifth spot.
La Blanquirroja were drawn in Australia’s group at the last World Cup in 2018, beating the Socceroos 2-0. It was the last game of Bert van Marwijk’s tenure before Graham Arnold took over.
Ironically van Marwijk now serves as an obstacle for Australia, taking over as coach of the UAE after he cut ties with the Aussies.
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