DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Scenes of wild celebrations with sparklers and fire are not the norm in post-World Cup Australia. matches.
However, that was exactly what happened in Melbourne’s Fed Square after the Socceroos beat Tunisia. on Saturday for just their third victory in 18 World Cup matches.
Now, Australia is looking for something even bigger: reaching the round of 16 of football’s biggest event, something it did only once, in 2006.
Australia take on European Championship semi-finalists Denmark in their final group game decider on Wednesday, with the winner likely to advance.
“It has been an incredible reaction to our result. And that’s the way it should be,” said Australian striker Mitchell Duke, who scored with a header in the 1-0 win against Tunisia. “But we haven’t achieved anything yet.
“It was amazing to get that result and get that third World Cup win for Australia. But we’re not happy or satisfied with that,” Duke added. “We want more and we think we can get out of the group and we can get a result against Denmark and that’s our main goal now.”
Defending champions France have already advanced to the knockout stages in Group D with a full six points from their first two games. Australia sit next with three points, while Denmark and Tunisia trail with one point each.
Australia will qualify with a win or draw unless Tunisia beat France. Denmark need to win and hope Tunisia don’t beat France.
Australia is counting on France to perform well against Tunisia.
“There are players out there who are hungry for individual prizes. And (French striker Kylian) Mbappé will want to keep scoring goals to try to get the Golden Boot and things like that,” Duke said. “So I’m hoping that all those players in the French team keep the same mentality and want to get the full sweep in their group to get the result and do us a favor against Tunisia.”
Although, as Duke also noted, “as long as we do the job against Denmark, it doesn’t matter.”
Australia drew 1-1 with Denmark in the group stage of the last World Cup in 2018.
But Denmark will expect more from themselves after a lackluster 0-0 opening draw with Tunisia and a 2-1 loss to France.
‘It is very clear and it is very easy; we don’t have to do any calculations or think about other options,” Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand said. “It’s simple; We’ll try to win the match, that’s all.”
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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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Andrew Dampf is at https://twitter.com/AndrewDampf
