{"id":213936,"date":"2025-11-18T21:11:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T21:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/18\/arnie-on-verge-of-another-world-cup-miracle-after-wild-107th-minute-winner-he-couldnt-watch\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T21:11:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T21:11:00","slug":"arnie-on-verge-of-another-world-cup-miracle-after-wild-107th-minute-winner-he-couldnt-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/18\/arnie-on-verge-of-another-world-cup-miracle-after-wild-107th-minute-winner-he-couldnt-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"Arnie on verge of another World Cup miracle after wild 107th-minute winner he couldn\u2019t watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Former Socceroos manager Graham Arnold is one step closer to another World Cup miracle as Iraq secured their place in the inter-confederation playoffs in dramatic fashion.<\/p>\n

Iraq, who Arnold took charge of Iraq in May in his first job after quitting the Socceroos last year, scored a penalty in the 17th minute of injury time to beat the United Arab Emirates 2-1 in the second leg of their 2026 World Cup qualifying tie on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Substitute Mohanad Ali, who plays in the UAE for Dibba, and Amir Al-Ammari scored in Basra as Arnold\u2019s men came from behind to secure a 3-2 aggregate victory after last week\u2019s 1-1 first-leg draw.<\/b><\/p>\n

Get all the latest football news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Iraq, whose only appearance at a World Cup was a group-stage exit in Mexico in 1986, progressed to the six-team play-offs where the last two tickets to the finals will be decided.<\/p>\n

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Arnold will dare to dream of breaking that lengthy drought, having taken Australia to the Round of 16 in the World Cup in Qatar three years ago.<\/p>\n

The UAE broke the deadlock in the 52nd minute, as Yahia Nader slipped the ball through for Brazilian-born forward Caio Lucas to fire the ball past Iraq goalkeeper Jalal Hachim.<\/p>\n

But Iraq hit back midway through the second half when Mohanad Ali headed home Al-Ammari\u2019s free-kick.<\/p>\n

The home side piled on the pressure late on, with Mohanad Ali missing two good chances to score a winner.<\/p>\n

But VAR awarded Iraq the latest of penalties for a handball, and Al-Ammari stepped up to net the spot-kick and keep alive his nation\u2019s hopes of ending their 40-year wait to play in a World Cup \u2014 not that Arnold could watch the moment amid unbearable tension.<\/p>\n

Post-match, several of the Iraqi players crashed Arnold\u2019s press conference and hoisted him into the air in celebration.<\/p>\n

Although, the Australian did his best to remain diplomatic until the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still haven\u2019t qualified for the World Cup,\u201d Arnold said. <\/p>\n

\u201cKeep supporting the players, the road is long, but the goal is achievable. The Arab Cup is next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bolivia, New Caledonia and the Democratic Republic of Congo have also booked their places at the inter-confederation play-offs.<\/p>\n

The other two playoff spots will be decided by the final round of CONCACAF qualifiers later Tuesday, with Jamaica and Panama currently in position to qualify for the mini-tournament.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Socceroos manager Graham Arnold is one step closer to another World Cup miracle as Iraq secured their place in the inter-confederation playoffs in dramatic fashion. Iraq, who Arnold took charge of Iraq in May in his first job after quitting the Socceroos last year, scored a penalty in the 17th minute of injury time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":213937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[151,1800,1641,83,1736,3746,9030,5449,66415,1429,9288,149,4232,7062,2488,66413,66410,66414,475,320,5448,6012,1533,1728,11744,66412,2588,2874,11375,1847,3150,66395,36427,66411],"class_list":{"0":"post-213936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-asia","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","13":"tag-caribbean","14":"tag-central-america","15":"tag-congo-kinshasa","16":"tag-epic-qualifying-scenes","17":"tag-europe","18":"tag-final-round","19":"tag-football-news","20":"tag-germany","21":"tag-graham-arnold","22":"tag-home-side","23":"tag-inter-confederation-playoff-spot","24":"tag-inter-confederation-playoffs","25":"tag-jalal-hachim","26":"tag-jamaica","27":"tag-mexico","28":"tag-middle-africa-sub-saharan-africa","29":"tag-netherlands","30":"tag-north-america","31":"tag-oceania","32":"tag-panama","33":"tag-playoff-spots","34":"tag-press-conference","35":"tag-qatar","36":"tag-united-arab-emirates","37":"tag-western-asia","38":"tag-western-europe","39":"tag-win-bigfootball","40":"tag-world-cup-qualifiers","41":"tag-yahia-nader"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}