The Young Socceroos after off to the FIFA U20 World Cup in Chile in September and October this year, breaking a 12-year drought.
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The Australian teenagers booked their place in the global showpiece tournament for the first time since 2013 with a thrilling 3-2 win in their quarter-final against Iraq at the U20 Asian Cup in China.
Victory put Australia through to the semi-finals, where they will face either Japan or Iran on Wednesday as Australia came from behind twice with several young stars putting their names up in lights.
Melbourne Victory’s Alex Badolato was the match-winner in Shenzhen with a superb 75th minute volley proving to be the deciding goal.
A headed clearance fell to Badolato just outside the box and he hit a stunning strike into the back of the net to produce one of the great winning goals.
Iraq struck first after 15 minutes, but roughly seven minutes later, Australia levelled through Adelaide United’s Luka Jovanovic’s excellent free kick from long range beating the Iraqi wall and goalkeeper.
Iraq led again four minutes later, but shortly after the half an hour mark scores were level again in a wild first half.
The Iraqi defence failed to clear Paul Okon-Englster’s cross and central defender Panagiotis Kikianis curled home a nice right foot finish among the scramble in the penalty area.
“Obviously super proud for the boys. It’s a life goal to get to a World Cup,” manager Trevor Morgan said.
“They had to do so with some adversity, which makes it even more enjoyable. They had to show that fighting spirit and produced the goods.”
Earlier in the tournament, the Young Socceroos topped their group with three wins from three games against China, Qatar and the Kyrgyz Republic.
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