Australia have booked a spot in the Asian Cup final with a 2-0 win over the United Arab Emirates at Hunter Stadium on Tuesday night. Australia will play South Korea in a quarter-final rematch in Sydney on Saturday night.
The Socceroos got off to a perfect start in the soggy conditions when an early corner was converted by defender Trent Sainsbury. With so much attention given to Tim Cahill in the box, Sainsbury was left unmarked and made the Emirates pay in the 3rd minute.
Australia dominated play and were passing the ball around with good tempo and precision, running the opposition ragged. The Emirates employed a counter-attack style offense to deal with the Socceroos power and pace going forward.
Ahmed Khalil nearly brought the visitors level in the tenth minute, latching on to a low cross with a powerful volley that hit the base of the post and left goalkeeper Mat Ryan helplessly looking on.
Australia capitalized minutes later with another penetrating cross into the box. The ball went behind Cahill who was again marked hard and a scrappy chance was made golden when Massimo Luongo set up Jason Davidson who guided the ball home in the bottom corner in the 14th minute.
The early 2-0 lead did not prevent the Socceroos from pressing the opposition. They dominated the stats against a resilient opposition with over 55% possession in the first half.
The United Arab Emirates lacked the finishing touches to a number of chances in both the first and second halves. Both sides finished with 11 shots on target for the game, but Mat Ryan was not really called on to make any extensive efforts to shut down opportunities.
The second half had a stronger defensive focus for the Australians and the Emirates never gave up in their attempts to claw back into the match.
The match remained level putting the hosts into the final against Korea. They will be hoping for an equally impressive and productive start to that match in Sydney on Saturday.
“I think it was a dream start for us. As the game went on I think fatigue kicked in, but we worked hard, kept a clean sheet, all credit to the boys,” commented goalscorer Davidson after the match.
“We knew that the UAE were going to be tired and give us a fight at the start and the goal was to score as quickly as possible and get as many goals as we could.”
Image: Getty Images – Brendon Thorne
