2024-01-13T15:04:47+00:00
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/ On Saturday, the Australian national football team achieved a well-deserved victory over India 2-0, in the first round of Group Two of the Asian Football Cup in Qatar.
At the Ahmed bin Ali World Cup Stadium, in front of a crowd of 36,000, most of whom supported the Indian team, Jackson Irvine (50) and Jordan Boss (73) scored the two goals.
The match marked a first for the Asian Cup finals, as Japanese referee Yoshimi Yamashita had the honour of being the first woman to officiate a match in the continental finals.
The group also includes Syria and Uzbekistan, who will meet later at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium.
Australia, the 2015 champions when they hosted the finals, entered the match with a squad that had more than half of its players participating in the match against Argentina in the round of 16 of the World Cup in Qatar in late 2022, most notably its captain Matt Ryan, who recovered from a broken cheekbone.
Despite Australia’s control of the game, the first real chance was for India through its veteran striker Sunil Chhetri (39 years old), who headed the ball, but it went outside the three posts (16).
It is worth noting that Chhetri, India’s top scorer, is the only player remaining from the current squad that previously faced Australia in the 2011 edition in Qatar (0-4).
Australia responded with a chance through Connor Metcalfe that did not bear fruit (21), then Martin Boyle hit a volley from inside the area that went over the crossbar (31).
The Australian team pressed in the last quarter of an hour, but could not find a way towards India’s goal thanks to its organized defense.
Australia continued to press and succeeded in opening the scoring through Jackson Irvine, who took advantage of a grave mistake by Indian goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu to follow it up into the empty net from inside the area (50).
Substitutes Riley McGree and Jordan Boss exchanged the ball, with the latter easily adding Australia’s second goal at the goal (73), one minute after coming on as a substitute.