Dashed dream: Australia stop Syria’s world cup run

War-torn Syria’s World Cup journey comes to an end, but what a ride it was.

Australia needed the old man Tim Cahill to bail them out and they will face either Panama, Honduras or USA for a place in Russia.

Australia midfielder Mark Milligan: “The longer the game went on, we had a good stranglehold on it. They fought with everything, they were outstanding and gave us an extremely tough match on our home soil.

“We worked hard, we knew what we were capable of and it was going to start to hurt them late on.

“We went aggressive with our formation but everyone worked hard and that is what we have in us.

“It was a loose pass for me for their goal and they punished us with the quality in their striker.

“The next round will be a different match, we will have a different challenge on our hands.”

Men at Work classic Down Under rings around the speakers at the ANZ Stadium.

Relief for the Socceroos, they go through to the final play-off against the side who finish fourth in the Concacaf group.

BBC