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Australia have qualified for their fourth successive World Cup, handing Honduras a 3-1 beating at ANZ Stadium in the second leg of their inter-confederation qualifying play-off.
After a nill-all draw in the first leg away from home, the Socceroos needed a win – or a scoreless draw and then a win in extra time or penalties – to advance to Russia.
In the end, they got the advantage and rammed it home in the second half after a scrappy first half from both sides.
Ange Postecoglou’s men looked extremely nervous during the first half. They attacked early, but needing to defend and not allow a goal against them as well, the raids on Honduran goal let up after the first ten minutes, the rest of the first half being a drab affair.
Both teams attacking raids were poor at best, neither looking likely of scoring. The visitors played better than they did in the first leg, but still never got close to putting Australian goalkeeper Mathew Ryan under any pressure.
On the other side of halftime, Australia came out of the gates with more positive intent, looking to score and take the game away from the Hondurans.
The opening goal ended up coming as an own goal from a Mile Jedinak free kick. Honduras were physical all game, committing a lot of fouls, and one on the edge of the box in the 52nd minute turned out to be one too many, Jedinak curling the free kick around the defensive wall.
It then deflected off Honduran captain Maynor Figueroa, past goalkeeper Donis Escober and into the bottom of the net.
It still wasn’t over with more than half an hour to go, but the Hondurans seemed to struggle pushing the ball forward and creating opportunities. They lacked execution and fatigue became an issue, the extra 24 hours spent in transit likely catching up with them.
The Socceroos captain Jedinak then put past another pair of penalties, the Honduran defence losing any sense of discipline, making silly decisions and allowing Australia to progress with a lot less nerves than otherwise might have been the case.
It’s been a topsy-turvy qualifying road for Australia, but they have made the World Cup after 22 matches. There are questions to be answered ahead of Russia, but for now, it’s time to celebrate the achievement of making a fourth straight World Cup.
The draw for the FIFA World Cup will be declared on December 1.
Final score
Australia 3
Honduras 1