Australia picked up a 1-0 win over Vietnam in the World Cup qualifiers earlier tonight.
The Socceroos are in excellent form right now and they have claimed their tenth straight win in the qualifiers.
The visitors enjoyed the lion’s share of possession but they were lacking in craft and imagination in the final third. They kept passing the ball around aimlessly and Vietnam were happy to defend deep.
The home side defended with men behind the ball and Australia struggled to break them down time and again.
Vietnam also tried to hit Australia on the counter a few times and the Socceroos were lucky to keep a clean sheet.
The hosts had a couple of important chances in the first half and they had a penalty overruled after a VAR check on a potential Rhyan Grant handball.
Grant went on to head home his first international goal to give Australia the lead shortly before halftime.
The Socceroos put on a much better performance against China on Thursday and they will be looking to improve in the next outing.
That said, the win here will have given them immense confidence and it will be interesting to see if they can carry on the momentum in the upcoming matches.
Australia have not only managed their tenth straight win in the qualifiers they have managed to keep eight clean sheets during that run as well. No other Asian national team has managed such a streak in the World Cup qualifiers.
The Socceroos will now host Oman at home next month.
Manager Graham Arnold said after the game: “I was very pleased with the effort and the performance obviously could have been better, (but) you have to look at the circumstances and in the conditions, we played in. And at the end of the day, another clean sheet and, the effort, as I said, the effort was fantastic… It is a sign of a great team when you don’t play at your best and can still win.”
