DOHA: A late Ajdin Hrustić volley gave Australia a crucial 2-1 win in the World Cup Asian qualifying playoff in Qatar, after Caio Canedo cancelled out Jackson Irvine’s opener. Now the Socceroos face Peru, also in Qatar on Tuesday for a place in the finals.

Irvine’s opening strike set the scene for an important victory over the UAE, and he said it was a “great feeling”, but warned that the job was only half done with one final hurdle to overcome in the drawn-out efforts to secure a place at this year’s tournament in Qatar.

“Obviously it’s a great feeling,” he said. “But you have that moment of elation when the final whistle goes, and then straightaway you are focused. It’s a great result which means we can go into the week full of confidence. The job is only half done and we will have a tough preparation week again. Recover, get ready to go again. We have a great squad with a good energy about us, and I’m excited.”

Coach Arnold, who has been under intense pressure since Australia’s qualification campaign stuttered earlier this year, said the Socceroos knew the UAE would sit back, adding that he ensured his team would not play into the hands of the opposition.

“We made sure we stayed nice and compact the whole game,” he said. “I thought there was a lot less space for the opposition tonight. Overall I thought defensively we were good, and I saw a good reaction tonight.”

Arnold said he had wanted to emphasise “Aussie DNA” to the squad, which he characterised as being about the “fight” and the “win” and not how it would be achieved.

United Arab Emirates 1-2 Australia: World Cup 2022 qualifying playoff – as it happenedRead more

“That is what I have been driving to the boys … about the Aussie DNA, and that is fight, scratch and do whatever you have got to do to win the game. However we win it, who cares? Just win it.”

Hrustić, whose thunderous volley took a deflection on its way into the back of the net in the 84th minute, said the team never gave up, even after the UAE equalised.

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media post that the team’s performance in the second half was “much better”.

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