Australia will face fellow group leaders Uzbekistan in Group B of the Asian Cup on Tuesday. The Socceroos’ close 1-0 victory over Syria on matchday two ensures they will play in the round of sixteen. Uzbekistan, who defeated India 3-0 with ease, sits two points behind them in second place.
Preview (Australia vs. Uzbekistan)
The Australians displayed a defensive masterclass on Thursday. They limited the Syrians to just one shot on goal. They preserved their record of never losing to the knockout stage of this competition. Australia’s defense has been nearly unbeatable lately. They have given up just one goal in their last six competitive games. With a win on matchday two, Graham Arnold’s team will exit the group stage of this event with a perfect record. They would need just one point on Tuesday to top their group for the first time since 2011.
Australia have not been behind at the interval since narrowly losing their round of 16 clash with Argentina. They have conceded just once in the opening half of their last 10 competitive fixtures. It has been over 18 months since anyone from Asia found the back of the net against them. Jordan took a 1-0 lead in a June 2022 friendly, though Australia came back to win that match 2-1. The Socceroos are unbeaten in their four previous meetings versus Uzbekistan. They failed to concede a single goal in any of those fixtures.
It would be historic for this team to defeat the Socceroos on matchday three. It would mean they finish the first round of this competition as group champions for the first time. They haven’t finished this tournament’s group stage without losing since that year. If they can keep Australia off the scoreboard on Tuesday, it will be their first tournament group-stage finish without giving up a goal since 2004. Similar to Australia, Uzbekistan is currently enjoying incredible success. They have gone undefeated in their past nine games across all competitions and have only given up one goal in their last four games combined.
Team News
From matchday one to matchday two, Arnold made three changes to the Socceroos lineup: Cameron Burgess, Aiden O’Neill, and Jordan Bos entered the starting lineup instead of Kye Rowles, Keanu Baccus, and Craig Goodwin. On Thursday, Martin Boyle earned his 25th cap; O’Neill achieved double digits in that category; Mitchell Duke, now at 35; and Harry Souttar, should he play in this game, can reach 25. On matchday two, Jackson Irvine scored his 11th goal for the national team in back-to-back games, and Mathew Ryan just needed to make one save to record his 32nd straight clean sheet for the Socceroos.
Rustam Ashurmatov, Khojiakbar Alijonov, and Khojimat Erkinov were substituted by Sherzod Nasrullaev, Abbosbek Fayzullaev, and Igor Sergeev in Katenec’s starting lineup on Thursday. Odiljon Hamrobekov is two caps away from reaching 50 caps for his country, Farrukh Sayfiev now has 50 caps, and on Tuesday, Abdulkodir Khusanov can make double digits in appearances. On matchday two, Nasrullaev scored his first goal for his country; Fayzullaev scored the winning goal, his third on the international scene; Sergeyev scored for the White Wolves for the 19th time, one less than Igor Shkvyrin’s record of eighth all-time; and Utkir Yusupov kept a clean sheet.
Australia 0-0 Uzbekistan
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