Australia failed to make the most of the away leg of their Asia-CONCACAF World Cup playoff after they were to a 0-0 draw versus on Honduras. Socceroos striker Tomi Juric had glorious chances to put his team ahead in either half, but they were eventually failed to find the elusive away goals against a physical Honduras side.
Despite the draw, Ange Postecoglou’s men will return to the home leg on Wednesday as favourites after a resolute display in hot and humid conditions in the Caribbean. Speaking after the game, Postecoglou was pleased with a great performance, and he is looking to guide the Socceroos to their fourth straight World Cup with a win in Sydney.
He said: “It was a great performance and the result doesn’t reflect that unfortunately. I thought we were good enough in our play to get one or two goals but at the end of the day we wanted a strong performance and that’s what we got. We’ve got the home game now with our crowd and our conditions so we’re in good shape.”
Veteran superstar Tim Cahill had suffered an ankle knock prior to the Inter-confederation playoff and Postecoglou avoided risking him from the bench in a relatively poor playing surface. The former Evertonian scored both goals in the triumph over Syria in the Asian playoff, and he could provide cutting edge in the second leg on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Postecoglou refused to point the blame towards Juric after he missed a couple of clear-cut chances, he added: “Tomi put in an enormous shift for us. I’m sure he would have loved to have got a goal but overall his performance was good.”
Honduras will surely go into the second leg as potential underdogs and manager Jorge Luis Pinto was disappointed that his team could not salvage a win on the day. Nonetheless, he is optimistic that the country can spring a surprise Down Under.