Australians advance in fair dinkum Cup miracle

In time, it will go down as the Socceroos miracle. They were the width of a goal post from not being in Doha — now they are in the second round of the World Cup.

Australia suffered in qualifying, winning only four of 10 matches in the final round, losing to Japan (home and away) and Vietnam.

They scraped into third place in their group — one point ahead of Oman — before edging past the United Arab Emirates 2-1 to progress to the intercontinental playoff with Peru. Hopes were not high.

There were only a handful of media in Doha for that match — including a single print journalist.

“Back home there is not a lot of confidence,” he told me at the time. “They [news organisations] didn’t want to fork out for this trip”.

On a warm night, in front of thousands of Peruivan fans, the Socceroos were the better side, though Peru hit the post in extra time.

Australia looked doomed when they missed the first penalty in the shootout. But everything turned when Peru’s Luis Advincila struck the post, before substitute goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne sealed their passage when he saved Alex Valera’s effort.

Once in Qatar, Australia managed another amazing turnaround.

The opening 4-1 loss to France was not just demoralising but damaging to their goal difference, as the lowestranked team in Group D looked headed for an early exit.

But somehow, they managed consecutive 1-0 victories over Tunisia and Denmark, the first time Australia has won two World Cup games in a row and kept successive clean sheets.

According to most Aussie scribes — and the vast Twitter majority — Socceroos coach Graham Arnold was a dead man walking, just six months ago, after a lacklustre qualifying campaign.

There was even speculation he could be replaced before the intercontinental playoff, such was the disenchantment across the Tasman.

But Arnold ignored the noise and built an incredible belief within the squad, culminating in yesterday’s remarkable win over world No 10 Denmark, where Australia (ranked 39th) were restricted to 28 per cent possession and had few chances.

“I could see it in their eyes they were ready,” said Arnold after the match.

The coach came up with one of the great lines, when asked about how they would mark the momentous victory.

“No celebration,” said Arnold. “As I said to the boys — that’s why we won, after a great win over Tunisia.

“No celebrations, no emotion, sleep, no social media.”