Australia (right) won a surprise victory over Japan - Photo: AFP
On the evening of June 5, the Australian team won 1-0 against Japan in Group C of the 2026 World Cup in Asia.
Before entering the match, the "Land of the Rising Sun" team had already secured a ticket to the 2026 World Cup finals, so they had every right to play "at a leisurely pace".
However, with their position, Japan played an all-out attack from the first minutes despite leaving many stars on the bench. Right from the first minutes, the East Asian representative had a number of dangerous opportunities from Kamada and Suzuki but could not take advantage of them successfully.
With the encouragement of a large home crowd, the Australian team played extremely resiliently and neutralized many of their opponents' attacks to end the first half in a draw.
Australia team makes Indonesia lose direct ticket to World Cup 2026 - Photo: AFP
The script did not change much in the second half as Japan continued to be the team that pressed the field and had many dangerous opportunities. The presence of midfielder Kubo helped coach Hajime Moriyasu's team play more smoothly. In the 80th minute, Kubo had a classy move that eliminated two Australian players, but his shot unfortunately went wide of the post.
Missing many opportunities, the "Land of the Rising Sun" team finally conceded a goal in the 90th minute. Starting from the wing attack, McGree had a classy move to eliminate the Japanese defender, then passed the ball back to Behich who turned and finished to score the opening goal.
This was also the only goal of the match, helping the home team win dramatically. This result helped the Australian team get 16 points (ranked 2nd), 6 points ahead of the 3rd team, Saudi Arabia, despite playing 1 more match.
At the same time, the Indonesian team has run out of chances to directly qualify for the 2026 World Cup finals when they cannot compete for the top two positions. Now, they can only hope to stay in 3rd or 4th place in Group C to be able to enter the play-off round to keep their chances alive.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/danh-bai-nhat-ban-tuyen-uc-khien-indonesia-mat-ve-truc-tiep-di-world-cup-2026-20250605205256766.htm
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