Mile Jedinak’s second goal in as many matches helped Australia overcome Bahrain 1-0 to qualify for the Asian Cup quarter-finals in Doha on Tuesday.
Jedinak produced a scintillating strike in the shadows of half-time to give the Socceroos a narrow lead that they at times struggled to protect, but the hard-fought victory proved enough to qualify as Group C winners after Korea’s 4-1 victory over India was not enough to dislodge Holger Osieck’s side from the summit of the table.
As expected, the Socceroos made three injury-enforced changes for their final group game, with David Carney (shoulder), Jason Culina (knee) and Luke Wilkshire (groin) still bearing the battle scars from their hard-fought draw with South Korea.
In their place, Matt McKay replaced Carney at left-back despite being more accustomed to playing a midfield role for A-League club Brisbane Roar, Jade North filled the void left by Wilskshire on the right side of defence, and Carl Valeri was a natural swap for Culina in the centre of the park.
For Bahrain, who needed all three points to stay alive in the tournament, attacking midfielder Faouzi Aaish, scorer in each of the two games to date, was suspended for the match.
Brett Emerton made an early drive at goal for the Socceroos but hooked his shot from outside the penalty area, while Bahrain showed attacking intent of their own as they sought to expose the incongruous McKay with a number of thrusts on the right wing.
In wet conditions, the Socceroos struggled to construct the fluent passing exchanges that they were afforded against minnows India, a task made doubly difficult by their opponents at times putting 11 men behind the ball in their defensive half.
Against the run off play, the lively Abdulla Fatadi broke beyond the Australian defence and offloaded to Ismaeel Abdullatif, but the man who netted four times against India could only clip the woodwork from a narrow angle.
At the other end, Australia launched a break of their own as Brett Holman put Harry Kewell through on goal, but the alert Mahmood Mansoor burst off his line to narrow Kewell’s angle and deny the Socceroos striker.
Mansoor could do little to stop Jedinak in the 37th minute, however, as a burst from Emerton set the former Central Coast Mariners midfielder up to launch a powerful strike from the edge of the area that skidded off the soggy turf and into the back off the net.
It was Jedinak’s second goal in as many matches following his crucial equaliser against South Korea, as he begins to add goal scoring to the defensive midfield traits that have seen him become a regular in Holger Osieck’s side.
Jedinak almost repeated the dose two minutes later, this time launching another fierce drive from a free-kick that forced Mansoor into a smart save.
Abdullatif almost gave Bahrain the perfect start to the second half when he forced Mark Schwarzer into a lunging stop, while at the other end, Tim Cahill, whose usual aerial threat was lacking on the night, wasted an ideal opportunity to make it 2-0 when he uncharacteristically skewed his header wide after being played in by Kewell.
The Socceroos sought to protect their fragile lead and were only able to do so thanks to the superb Schwarzer, who made a pair of clutch saves to deny Fatadi and Abdullatif, as Salman Sharida’s side pressed forward in search of the equaliser that would re-ignite their quarter-final hopes.
But that never came as Australia did just enough to earn the three points ahead of their quarter-final clash against the runners-up from Group D.
Tue 18 January, 2011