Socceroos fans breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday night, after Australia came from behind to beat China 3-1 during their 2028 World Cup qualifying clash.
The home side marked a new era for Australian men’s football under new coach Tony Popovic, showing great fight in the secon half, to come back from going a goal down.
It was hometown hero Craig Goodwin who was the star of the show, setting up Lewis Miller for the Socceroos’ equalising goal in the first half, before producing a stunning strike from over 25 yards out.
Substitute Nishan Velupillay would come on in injury time to end their two-match run without a win, having failed to beat both Bahrain and Indonesia in their previous two matches.
But things looked bleak from the outset, with fans hitting out at the Socceroos for allowing China Wenneng Xie to put the hosts ahead inside 20 minutes.
Australia’s defence seemed to go to sleep, allowing Xie to drive into their penalty area, before placing the ball into the bottom right corner of the net.
And Socceroos fans took to X to lambast their side for conceding first.
‘Absolutely chatastrophic defending. There have been a few moments of indecision where Socceroos players didn’t know who was going to receive a pass, and that sort of hesitation destroyed them for the goal.’
‘The Socceroos realise they have to score goals to win, right?’ Another said.
‘Embarrassment,’ another said reacting to the goal.
Despite that, fans were buoyed by the result at full time, with many claiming there were still things to work on but the team had improved.
‘Big result honestly, socceroos have struggled for a while now to recover from a bloody nose, so going on to win convincingly on the scoreboard after going behind is big.’
‘Got there in the end. Subs made all the difference I believe and Goodwin is just talismanic. When he’s on song, so’s the rest of the team.’
‘Badly needed the 3 points, but lets be honest we are going to be slaughtered by Japan. They effortlessly put 7 past this China team and I’ll be very surprised if we don’t get rinsed as well if we continue to play like that. Playing with Duke up front is playing with NO striker…’ one wrote.
More to follow…
