Australia put forward the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico next year with its precious victory over its guest Japan 1-0-today Thursday-in Perth in the ninth round of the last of the third group.
Australia condemns its fourth victory in the qualifiers and the third in succession to the defender of Melbourne City, who scored the only goal in the first minute of stoppage time after a pass from the English striker Middlesbrough Riley McGari in front of a large crowd of more than 57,000 spectators at the Optos Stadium.
⚽️ Aziz gives Australia lately against Japan #Road to the World of World 2026 | #World Cup Qualifiers#AsianQualifiers pic.twitter.com/pOnQoTTdWX
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) June 5, 2025
It is the first victory for Australia over Japan since 2009, and its position in second place with 16 points strengthened 4 points behind the “blue samurai”, the first to qualify for the finals, with a difference of 6 points and a large difference of goals (+8 against -2) against Saudi Arabia, which later is a guest of Bahrain.
Australia guarantees its qualification if Saudi Arabia stumbles, but if the latter wins, the decisiveness is postponed to the last round when the two teams meet at a fiery summit in Jeddah on the 10th of this month.
The first two teams in each of the three groups qualify directly to the World Cup, while the two direct seats are determined by Asia through the fourth round in a continental supplement in which the third and fourth place owners participate.
Australia has not qualified directly to the World Cup since 2014, after it needed to run an attachment to book its two cards in 2018 and 2022.
It is later played by Indonesia with China in the same group.