{"id":161052,"date":"2021-11-16T18:05:48","date_gmt":"2021-11-16T19:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=161052"},"modified":"2021-11-16T19:59:45","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T19:59:45","slug":"crucial-points-dropped-by-socceroos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=161052","title":{"rendered":"Crucial points dropped by Socceroos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia<\/a> have slipped to third in their group for FIFA World Cup qualifying, after a 1-1 draw against China that was punctuated by a controversial VAR decision.<\/p>\n

With wins to both of their biggest rivals for direct qualification overnight, a campaign that started with a perfect nine points from nine now suddenly looks precarious.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After taking just two points in their past three matches, Graham Arnold's men now sit third on 11 points, behind both Saudi Arabia (16) and Japan (12).<\/p>\n

The Socceroos needed to impress after a dour outing against the Saudis in Sydney last week<\/a>, in what was their first home game in almost two years. Instead, it was another frustrating performance.<\/p>\n

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Mitch Duke opened the scoring eight minutes before the break, popping up at the near post to nod in a bullet cross from Martin Boyle.<\/p>\n

But with just over 20 minutes to go and after a lengthy VAR check, the referee pointed to spot after James Jeggo was judged to have handballed in the box. <\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/BrentonSpeed\/status\/1460653214022340614<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/pjohnson_sports\/status\/1460656654689595395<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/DreyerChina\/status\/1460647567239221249<\/a><\/p>\n

Wu Lei converted the ensuing spot kick, and no late scrambling was enough for Australia.<\/p>\n

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Now they must wait until next year to resume the final few matches of the campaign, with a pair of absolutely vital fixtures against Vietnam and Oman on January 27 and February 1.<\/p>\n

If the Socceroos have any hopes of direct qualification, wins in both of those games are a must – before they close out the group stage in March with two crunch games against Japan and Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia have slipped to third in their group for FIFA World Cup qualifying, after a 1-1 draw against China that was punctuated by a controversial […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161052"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=161052"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161054,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161052\/revisions\/161054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=161052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=161052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=161052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}