Australia’s World Cup campaign has ended in the most devastating fashion, falling to Egypt in a penalty shootout in the Round of 32 in Dallas, Texas.
The Socceroos remain without a victory in the World Cup knockout stage, while Egypt broke their drought in a tense shootout after the scores finished level at 1-1 after extra time.
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Egypt nailed all four of their penalties in the shootout to book a date with either defending champions Argentina or feel-good story Cabo Verde in the next round.
While Australia’s shot at World Cup history went begging as Harry Souttar and Lucas Herrington sent their penalties over the bar.
“Listen, congratulations to Egypt, huge victory for them, historic,” vice-captain Jackson Irvine told SBS.
“We took it all the way to the end.
“It’s a cruel way to end.”
“We’ve said from the beginning that we’re a champion team. We’re a unit, we do everything together,” Irvine added.
“We win together and lose together.
“They’ve been immense through the whole tournament.
“It’s just the beginning for a lot of these guys.”
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MATCH CENTRE: Australia vs Egypt, live scores, stats, updates
Socceroos coach Tony Popovic – who named an unchanged starting XI for his first time in his 22-game tenure as national team boss – rolled the dice one last time for the shootout by taking off goalkeeper Patrick Beach for regular captain Mat Ryan in the final minutes of extra time.
Beach kept Australia alive with a desperate, save of the tournament contender in the final minutes of regular time.
But Ryan, in his first appearance of the World Cup, was unable to be Australia’s hero as the Egyptians remained cool, calm and collected from the spot.
It was a full circle moment for Ryan after Graham Arnold substituted him for ‘The Grey Wiggle’ Andrew Redmayne for the qualifier playoff shootout against Peru four years ago.
Although, Australia was on the wrong side of the result this time around.
“It’s tough,” Popovic told SBS.
“I think we showed the world that Australian football is strong.
“[It’s] a wonderful group and I’m devastated that we can’t progress.”
Socceroos FUME after Bos is taken out | 00:30
As for the call to bring on Ryan, he said: “I think that was always an option for us and then you have to see how the game progresses.”
The Socceroos were forced to battle for most of the match without arguably the nation’s best player, Jordy Bos, after he was taken out by a dangerous tackle by Egyptian defender Ramy Rabia on the stroke of half time.
Bos was carried from the pitch in distressing scenes and ultimately had to be replaced by Kai Trewin after the interval.
As the Feyenoord star lay on the pitch clutching his lower leg, the protests of Socceroos skipper Harry Souttar and his teammates fell on deaf ears as Uruguayan referee Gustavo Tejera somehow kept his cards in his pocket.
The play did not even stop at the first for the incident with Socceroos assistant coach Paul Okon telling SBS at half-time that their understanding on the sidelines was that Tejera did pay a foul despite play continuing.
“Terrible tackle,” Okon said.
“We understand the referee played advantage, but he doesn’t come back and book the player.”
While SBS commentator David Basheer summed up the nation’s mood at the time of the incident in saying: “We are getting absolutely nothing from this Uruguayan referee.”
Bos’ injury blow came shortly after Souttar was brought down in the penalty area but Australia’s penalty shouts went unheard.
Former Socceroo Luke Wilkshire was filthy on commentary for SBS.
“We saw a player going down in box, claiming to be dragged down. How many times have we seen it, penalties given for that?” the ex-defender pondered.
Egypt’s heavy-handed tactics continued in the second half as they relentlessly targeted Nestory Irankunda whenever Australia went forward before the second hydration break of the match.
While Cristian Volpato was animated in gesturing to the referee that his shirt was being pulled whenever he tried to generate an Australian attack with his fancy footwork.
The referee started to blow more fouls against the North Africans as tempers flared.
Eventually, Egypt’s overzealous defending proved costly in the 55th minute when an own goal gifted Australia an equaliser.
Manchester City’s Omar Marmoush could have doubled Egypt’s advantage in the first minute of the second half but fired wide.
It proved to be a sliding doors moment as Aiden O’Neill’s free kick, after winning the foul himself, tried to find Souttar in the box and succeeded in catching the head of Egyptian defender Mohamed Hany and sail into the back of the net.
Australia had done the bulk of the attacking in the opening hour, and the goal came as reward for effort.
It was just the second goal scored by the Socceroos in a World Cup knockout game and coincidentally, the first was also an own goal as a Craig Goodwin shot was deflected in against Argentina four years ago.
Egyptian coach Hossam Hassan spoke on the eve of the match about the threat of Australia’s height advantage.
Popovic clearly gave a directive at half time to put their opponents under aerial pressure as his team repeatedly looped the ball into the air in the box in the second half.
Despite being on the front foot in the first half, Australia paid the price for not seizing early moments and a defensive blunder that led to Egypt’s opening goal.
Volpato struck an early warning with a long range shot that rattled the crossbar in the fifth minute.
Shortly after Bos made an excellent run down the right-hand side into the box to win Australia their first corner of the game.
Popovic’s men were under the pump shortly after when a foul was given against Jackson Irvine on the edge of the penalty area.
The Australian defenders blocked and then cleared the initial free kick from Emam Ashour.
But they were scrambling when the ball was quickly whipped in and Ashour headed past goalkeeper Patrick Beach.
It was a moment teenage centre back Herrington will want to forget as the Barcelona-linked 18-year-old was a step behind the rest of the Australian line and played Ashour onside.
Besides Marmoush’s scare after the restart, the Egyptian attack was kept relatively quiet until a scary push in second half stoppage time.
Liverpool legend Mohamed Salah started the match despite coming into the contest with an injury cloud hanging over his head.
The 34-year-old picked up a hamstring issue in Egypt’s previous outing against Iran and had little influence until he sprung to life in added time.
Salah first had Australians nervous as he took a corner, but that ball was well cleared.
He then followed up moments later by whipping in an excellent ball to find the head of Rabia.
The 33-year-old made himself despised by Australians early in the contest by taking out Bos and Beach denied him the chance to become Egypt’s hero with one of the finest saves in Socceroos history.
The 22-year-old managed to tip Rabia’s header from point blank range over the bar with a stunning, one-handed, reflex save to keep the match level.
Two minutes later, Souttar then made a superb block to send the match to extra time.
In the extra half an hour, the Australians absorbed an enormous amount of pressure.
Substitutes Mohamed Toure and Awer Mabil along with Aziz Behich made some good runs into the final third, but the last ball into the box was lacking a touch of class.
At the other end, Salah dazzled and it came down to two last gasp blocks by Souttar and Herrington to deny Egypt a second goal.
But the Egypt captain fulfilled a historic moment for his nation in the end, taking the third penalty for his team and pulling off a Panenka.
“It’s history,” he said post-game.
“I told the boys before the game that this is the biggest stage you can play on.
“Enjoy it and don’t let the pressure get to you.
“I’m glad that we managed to win the game, bad luck for them.
“I’m happy that we wrote history today.”
As for the Panenka, Salah said: “If somebody was going to do it, it would be me.
“I am more experienced than others and I wanted to give them confidence. I decided last minute, I had to do it.”
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