November 21 – Australia’s World Cup hopes remain in doubt after a 2-2 draw with Bahrain in Group C in the third round of World Cup qualifying.
The Socceroos needed a 96th-minute equaliser from Portsmouth striker Kusini Yengi to rescue a point in Bahrain. The visitors had taken an early lead through Yengi after a defensive blunder from the Bahraini, but they almost collapsed in the last 20 minutes. Substitute Mahdi Abduljabbar levelled before he scored a second three minutes later.
“There are a lot of emotions now because a lot of things happened in the match,” said Australia manager Tony Popovic (pictured). “We had a couple of good chances to make it 2-0 that we didn’t capitalise on, then we gave away a couple of goals very quickly. But we showed great character to come back.”
Last week, Popovic, who succeeded Graham Arnold, and Australia were held to a goalless draw by Saudi Arabia in Melbourne.
The results leave Australia in an unenviable position in Group C. In second spot, they have seven points, one more than the quartet of Bahrain, China, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. The top two teams at the end of the phase advance directly to the World Cup in North America, while the third and fourth-placed sides advance to another round. Japan have 16 points and are within touching distance of a ticket for the 2026 World Cup, a 48-team tournament in the US, Mexico and Canada.
“Everyone’s finding it hard to get consecutive results. We’ll take the point, reflect and move on to March against Indonesia,” said Popovic.
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