sortiwa
Key events
The Socceroos have not beaten Japan for 16 years. Coach Tony Popovic insists that can change tonight.
Every game is significant for the Socceroos. But, obviously, these last two games, for automatic qualification, we know what we need to do; we need to put that into action, and we’re confident we can do that.
My colleague Joey Lynch is on the ground at Optus Stadium to bring you the match report later.
On to those pesky permutations. Here is where things stand:
The general gist is the Socceroos can all but secure their place with a win tonight; a draw or loss make things a bit more complicated. Jack Snape has broken everything down in more detail here:
Even if they win tonight, we won’t know whether Australia have qualified automatically for absolute 100% fully certain sureness until after the Saudi Arabia v Bahrain match kicking off at Friday 2am AEST.
Preamble
Jo Khan
G’day and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the World Cup 2026 qualifier between Australia and Japan in Perth. My name is Jo Khan and I’m here to take you through the pre-game news, live football and some post-match analysis.
At the moment my brain hurts from thinking about the Group C permutations and what it means for Australia but one thing is locked in – the Samurai Blue have already booked their spot at the North America tournament. However, it is most definitely a crunch match for Australia, can they lock in an automatic qualification?
Looking back to the Socceroos most recent outing in this Asian qualifying campaign, it was goals from Jackson Irvine and Nishan Velupillay that gave Australia a crucial 2-0 win in China in late March. This solidified their spot just below Japan in the Group C table – I’ll get to those details shortly.
To the task at hand now, if you have any comments or questions feel free to send me an email.
Kick-off is in just over an hour: 7.10pm local / 9.10pm AEST / 8.10pm JST
Let’s get into it!
Source link
