Australia beat Tunisia to keep World Cup hopes alive

Australia won a World Cup game for only the third time in their history with a dogged 1-0 victory over Tunisia on Saturday to revive their last-16 hopes.

Striker Mitch Duke scored the only goal of a tight game with a clever header in the first half and Australia then desperately held on to silence Tunisia's vociferous fans.

Australia sit second in Group D with three points from two games, having been well-beaten 4-1 by holders France in their tournament-opener.

The Socceroos face Denmark -- who play France later Saturday -- in their final group game and the knockout round is in sight.

Their best World Cup performance came in 2006 when they also reached the last 16, in the days of Tim Cahill, Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka.

Graham Arnold's Australia don't have players of that ilk but they have lots of heart and kicked off to deafening whistles in front of 42,000 at Al Janoub Stadium, where their fans were heavily outnumbered.

Tunisia (5-3-2):

Aymen Dahmen; Montassar Talbi, Dylan Bronn, Yassine Meriah, Mohamed Drager, Ali Abdi; Aissa Laidouni, Ellyes Skhiri, Naim Sliti; Issam Jebali, Youssef Msakni (capt)

Coach: Jalel Kadri (TUN)

Australia (4-3-3)

Australia fans inside the stadium before the match. Reuters

Mathew Ryan (capt); Kye Rowles, Fran Karacic, Aziz Behich, Harry Souttar; Aaron Mooy, Riley McGree, Jackson Irvine; Mathew Leckie, Craig Goodwin, Mitchell Duke

Coach: Graham Arnold (AUS)

Referee: Daniel Siebert (GER)

Agence France-Presse