The Socceroos will head to Bahrain knowing they need to grab three points after a 0-0 home draw with Saudi Arabia left their bid for direct World Cup qualification hanging in the balance.
While the Saudis dominated possession, Australia had the better of the chances in front of 27,491 fans at Melbourne’s AAMI Park on Thursday.
But Saudi Arabia, with a vocal away contingent at their backs, appeared to have scored a 93rd-minute winner from a free-kick only for the goal to be dramatically ruled offside.
“Yeah, I was worried.” coach Tony Popovic admitted.
“Of course, it’s that close, it’s in the six-yard area. Look, the players did push up, which is credit to them, but these things are a fine line sometimes.
“We take the point from today, we move forward. It’s another positive result, not the three points that we wanted.
“We can do a lot better, and we’ve got work to do, but we were also very hard to beat today, and we improved in the second half, which is a good sign for us.
“Overall, it’s an okay result in terms of where we want to be.”
Popovic will also sweat on an ankle injury to Nishan Velupillay, who was substituted on at half-time but made way for debutant Anthony Caceres in the 74th minute.
He insisted a rusty-looking Ajdin Hrustic, withdrawn at half-time, had only suffered a knock.
The result puts pressure on Australia to snare a result against Bahrain in Riffa on Tuesday night (Wednesday morning AEDT).
The top two teams in group C secure direct qualification for the 2026 World Cup while third and fourth place go into the next round of qualifying.
The Socceroos currently sit second in group C, on six points behind leaders Japan (10 points), and ahead of the Saudis on goal difference, while Bahrain (five points) play China (three) later on Thursday.
Japan play Indonesia (three points) on Friday.
From a drop ball in the 12th minute, Cam Burgess hoofed the ball over the Saudi defence.
Mitch Duke beat Saudi goalkeeper Ahmed Al-Kassar to the ball before the pair clashed heads.
The referee initially awarded Australia a penalty but replays showed the contact occurred outside the box.
Hrustic lifted the subsequent free kick into the area where Lewis Miller’s header deflected into the path of Harry Souttar, who blasted over the bar.
Australia improved after the half-hour mark and Hrustic spurned a golden chance in the 45th minute, firing a tame shot straight at Al-Kassar.
In the 84th minute, Lewis Miller slipped through substitute Brandon Borrello, who burst forward and attempted to square it to Riley McGree, but he was thwarted by Saud Abdulhamid.
Jackson Irvine curled a shot over the bar late in added time, while McGree had an audacious bicycle kick flick wide of the near post in the 97th minute..
“With the chances that we created, I think we deserved to win the game,” player of the match Aiden O’Neill said.
“But we’ve got to put the ball in the back of the net.”
The Saudis almost took the lead when a late free kick deflected out to Sultan Al-Ghannam, whose long-range strike nestled in the back of the net.
But the linesman disallowed the goal, as Ali Al-Bulayhi had played at the ball, therefore interfering with goalkeeper Joe Gauci from an offside position.
“I just saw the action. We have to give the confidence to the ref, but I have to see once again to be sure they made the best decision,” Saudi coach Herve Renard said.
“So no more comment about it.”
