Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Sydney: Firas Al Khatib believes that Syria’s Road to Russia came to an end because they were unable to beat Australia in the first leg of the Asian Play-offs after a 2-1 defeat in Tuesday’s second leg saw the Socceroos advance to the FIFA World Cup Inter-Continental Play-off following a 3-2 aggregate scoreline.
After playing out a 1-1 draw in Melaka last Thursday, the sides went into the game at Stadium Australia level pegging with the winners set to progress to a meeting with the fourth-ranked team from CONCACAF.
The West Asians took an early lead as Omar Al Soma scored his third goal in as many matches, before Tim Cahill equalised shortly after and Australia then went on to dominate proceedings against a resolute Syrian backline.
With no further goals in the 90 minutes the game went to extra-time and, after Mahmoud Al Mawas was dismissed for his second bookable offence, Australian pressure finally paid off as Cahill headed home in the 109th minute to break Syrian hearts.
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