A far from perfect first game for Tony Popovic, but his side was able to gain three crucial qualification points in Australia’s 2026 World Cup quest.
In front of a record crowd of 46,291 at the Adelaide Oval, the Socceroos hoped to break the game open, but a cumbersome start left home fans silent.
Despite Australia having possession for the first twenty minutes, China would net the first goal of the game from a swift attack.
An unexpected long ball from China’s goalkeeper, Wang Dalei, exposed the Socceroos' defence, and midfielder Xie Wenneng capitalised, holding off centre-back Harry Souttar to place a low strike past goalkeeper, Joe Gauci.
Australia would control the ball for the rest of the first half but lacked creativity, struggling to slice through China’s condensed low block.
However, a late foul on Aziz Behich awarded the Socceroos a free kick in added time.
Hometown hero, former Adelaide United player, Craig Goodwin, would take it superbly. He delivered a pinpoint cross to Lewis Miller, who headed it in confidently to level the game and score his first ever international goal.
A series of late Chinese corners worried fans, but the Socceroos held on to remain equal at the break.
Australia would continue to dominate possession in the second half, but the immediate substitutions of Riley McGree and Jason Geria provided a much-needed spark after the break.
Only eight minutes after halftime, the Socceroos would score again, via a Goodwin stunner.
Collecting the ball in attacking midfield, Goodwin took only a few touches before winding back his left foot to thunder home a glorious long-range goal to give Australia the lead.
Popovic would later sub in Jordan Bos, Nishan Velupillay, and Adjin Hrustic at different stages of the half to alter the Socceroos’ approach.
Bos and Velupillay played a key role in Australia’s final goal of the night, in the dying minutes of the game.
A low cross from Bos was poorly cleared by China and eventually fell to Velupillay’s feet, who snatched the opportunity to pound the ball into the top right corner, scoring on his international debut.
With the victory, Australia moved to second place in its qualifying table after previously floating dangerously in second last.
The top two placed teams will automatically qualify for the World Cup, while those placed third and fourth will move on to the latter rounds of qualification.
The bottom two teams are disqualified.
The Socceroos will face Japan away but need to vastly improve if they are to take even a point away from the game.
Japan have won all their qualifiers so far and sits atop Australia's group by a five-point margin.
While the Socceroos’ win against China is an important result, the unsustainable avenues of scoring relied upon in the game cast significant doubt moving forward.
So far, Japan has not conceded a goal and will not allow the Socceroos the same amount of possession they enjoyed against China.
Even more worrying for Australia is the Socceroos’ defence.
The Socceroos have now conceded goals to sides ranked 76th (Bahrain) and 91st (China), while Japan has scored an incredible 14 goals from three matches.
It’s a daunting task for Tony Popovic, who will hope to find a good result in his second game in charge, against a team that has beaten Australia the last three times they’ve played.
The Socceroos face Japan on Tuesday.
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