Socceroos stay alive as Ajdin Hrustic fires late winner in World Cup playoff win over UAE

If forced to pick out a player who has emerged as a cornerstone of their team during the run to Qatar 2022, there would be few better candidates than Ajdin Hrustić. Just weeks on from helping Eintracht Frankfurt lift their first European trophy in 42 years, the 25-year-old booked the Socceroos’ place in next week’s win-and-you’re-in World Cup playoff with Peru with an 84th-minute rocket that secured Australia a 2-1 win over the United Arab Emirates.

It may have taken a healthy deflection off Ali Salmeen – certainly enough to fool Khalid Eisa in the UAE goal – but given the stakes of Wednesday morning’s encounter, there will be little appetite in the Socceroos camp to qualify celebrations. Such temperance would also be underselling that few players available to Graham Arnold have the technique to hit the ball with such power and direction in the first place, and that frequently during this campaign Hrustić has been the shining light in what has otherwise been a predictable and uninspiring attack.

Coach Arnold had spoken of “Aussie DNA” during the build-up to this fixture. In his interpretation, it was a call to a spirit of “backs to the wall, run out, get on the pitch, chase, fight, harass and do everything that’s required to win this game”. Yet laid bare across the opening 45 minutes at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Qatar was what has increasingly come to delineate this team: conservatism in possession, an inability to fashion quality chances outside of transition and a steadfast reluctance to be exposed to any sort of risk by switching things up.

It cannot be said the UAE themselves were a dazzling example of verve and attacking football. Coach Rodolfo Arruabarrena’s side was also slow and ponderous in extended periods of possession; their best moments arrived when 19-year-old left-winger Harib Al-Maazmi was given an opportunity to run at the flank of Nathaniel Atkinson and Bailey Wright. The teenage attacker presented the lone bright spark of either side across the opening exchanges: his cut inside and shot from an acute angle that forced Mat Ryan into action in the 35th minute the most notable of the opening stanza’s shots on goal.

Putting defenders on their heels by running at them can do magical things, as the Australians discovered minutes into the second half when Mat Leckie forced a turnover of possession and the ball fell to Martin Boyle. Driving into the penalty area with venomous intent, the Scotland-born winger laced a cross along the ground that was met by Jackson Irvine. Irvine did what he does best as he arrived in the box from the midfield and fired home.

Less than three minutes later, however, Caio Canedo levelled things up. Capitalising on the Socceroos’ inability to clear, Al Abyad countered and the lethal Al-Maazmi whipped a ball in. With the Socceroos’ defence all at sea, naturalised Brazilian Canedo pounced. After all of 180 seconds, the pressure was on Australia once again.

The Socceroos had the better of the chances as the game progressed but extra-time and penalties loomed, when substitute Jamie Maclaren’s effort after a rare moment of fine interplay was saved in the 80th minute.

But cometh the moment, cometh the man. Befitting his newfound status as the Socceroos’ talisman – especially in the absence of Tom Rogic, who pulled out of the squad citing personal reasons in the buildup to the game – Hrustić popped up when it mattered the most.

Had his side played particularly well? Not particularly, and the Peruvians that were watching on will have seen little on Wednesday that will strike fear into their hearts. But for all the familiar problems that were on show, the Socceroos did not deserve to lose. Now, they stand just one triumph away from Qatar 2022.