Australia edge closer to World Cup with 5-1 thrashing of Indonesia, Iran triumph

Two goals in two minutes helped Australia secure a 5-1 thrashing of Indonesia on Thursday to inch closer to World Cup qualification as Dutch legend Patrick Kluivert was well beaten in his first game in charge.

Indonesia missed an early penalty before a Martin Boyle spot-kick and a Nishan Velupillay strike inside a frantic opening 20 minutes did the damage at Sydney Football Stadium.

A brace from Jackson Irvine and another by Lewis Miller sealed the win.

“The result today was very important and the fact that we did it with five goals, really pleased,” said man-of-the-match Irvine.

But Australian skipper Mat Ryan was not entirely satisfied.

“I think the scoreline flatters us a little bit to be honest,” the goalkeeper said. “At the start of the game they had two big chances, and if they put one of them away, it could have been a different game.

“But momentum is an important thing in sport and we’ve kick-started that winning momentum now in an important (FIFA) window, and it’s important we learn and get better.”

The win was a huge boost for Tony Popovic’s men in the race to come second in Asian Group C behind runaway leaders Japan and automatically qualify for the 48-team tournament in North America next year.

Australia now have 10 points, four clear of Indonesia, with three games to play, including a crunch away fixture against China on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia and China, who meet later in Riyadh, both have six points, as do Bahrain who clash with Japan in Saitama. Japan will book their place at the World Cup if they win.

Just the top two progress automatically, with third and fourth forced into another round of Asian qualifying.

Defeat reinforced the scale of the task facing former Barcelona forward Kluivert, who was appointed in January after South Korea’s Shin Tae-yong was sacked. His side head home for a must-win showdown against Bahrain next week in their bid to reach the World Cup for the first time since independence in 1945.

Australia were without a handful of injured regulars, including Leicester defender Harry Souttar and Middlesbrough midfielder Riley McGree.

But they still got the job done against a team featuring 10 players born in the Netherlands and naturalised to play for Indonesia.

In a breathless start, Ryan pulled off a spectacular save to deny Jay Idzes’ glancing header and minutes later Indonesia won a penalty when Kye Rowles took down Rafael Struick.

But Kevin Diks’ spot-kick hit the post.

Ten minutes later and it was the Socceroos’ turn when they were awarded a penalty after a VAR intervention and Hibernian striker Boyle made no mistake.

With momentum on their side, the hosts doubled their lead two minutes later when Adam Taggart found Velupillay who calmly chipped in over advancing goalkeeper Maarten Paes.

Irvine made it 3-0 in the 34th minute, forcing a fine save from Paes but converting the rebound.

Both Miller and Irvine added to the tally in the second-half from Craig Goodwin corners before Indonesia’s Ole Romeny pulled one back late on.

Meanwhile, Iran moved within a point of sealing a fourth consecutive FIFA World Cup appearance after defeating UAE.

The home side nearly capitalised on a defensive error from UAE in the fifth minute when Mehdi Ghayedi clipped a pass towards Sardar Azmoun, who chested the ball perfectly for Mohammad Mohebbi but Khalid Eisa stood tall to deny the FC Rostov forward from point-blank range.

A floodlight failure brought the match to a temporary halt in the 10th minute with the match only resuming in the 40th minute with Caio Lucas flashing a shot just wide in the 45th minute as 29 minutes were added by the referee at the end of the first half. Iran threatened again after Saman Ghoddos fed Roozbeh Cheshmi on the edge of the box but the 31-year-old’s effort in the fourth minute of added time was comfortably collected by Eisa.

Agencies