Australia 3-1 Honduras
Socceroos skipper Mile Jedinak bagged a second-half hat-trick to drain Honduras all of its World Cup hopes and fire Australia to the big Russia 2018 football games.
After their impressive, albeit goalless performance in the first leg, the Australians knew what they needed to do. And the whole team responded with a determined live betting performance in front of the 80,000 fans in attendance at the ANZ Stadium.
Pre-match betting odds pointed to a feisty affair in the second leg of the playoff. However, that was hardly the case as Honduras rarely threatened on the offensive end, failing to show the same fire they had when they fought Mexico to survive the CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers.
Sure enough, Honduras bravely resisted as the first half ended in a goalless stalemate. They showed a lot of physicality as proven by their 13 fouls in the period and didn’t look like they would easily concede a goal.
Nonetheless, that didn’t last long as Australia dominated and finally poked a hole on the visitor’s defence.
The home team controlled the pace of the game right from the off, and though they were unable to score in the opening frame, they still had a couple of chances behind great plays from Tom Rogic and the superb Aaron Mooy.
Australia picked up where they left off to start the second half, and it didn’t take time before they broke the deadlock from a free kick awarded after Bryan Acosta fouled Rogic from the edge of the box.
Jedinak smashed the ball towards the goal from the free kick and it eventually found the back of the net after a deflection from Honduras defender Henry Figueroa.
Knowing that they have a bad habit of giving up goals late in the match, the Socceroos didn’t sit back and continued to attack like they were the ones trailing. And their relentless efforts paid off after the refs gave them a 72nd-minute penalty for an Acosta handball.
The 33-year-old Jedinak converted from the spot and it was all over for Honduras at that point.
Australia won another penalty in the closing stages after Robbie Kruse was fouled inside the box—an opportunity which Jedinak took without hesitation to complete his treble. Alberth Elis, who seemed ready to explode for the Catrachos in the first half, scored a consolation in injury time to save some face for the Hondurans.
With the win, Australia are now off to their fourth straight World Cup appearance while also possibly saving Ange Postecoglou’s job as manager.
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