Australia World Cup Preview

Manager: Graham Arnold

Key player: Aaron Mooy

Best finish: Round of 16 (2006)

World Cup Group: France, Australia, Denmark, Tunisia

The Socceroos made hard work of qualifying only making it through after a save by Andrew Redmayne saw them beat Peru on penalties securing their fifth World Cup in a row.

After scraping through qualification Aussie fans aren’t overly hopeful of recreating their run to the knockout stage of 2006, they will be hoping that some of their young up and coming players will help provide some upsets in their group.

Daniel Arzani was a bright spark at the Russia World Cup 2018 and they’ll hope the skilful forward can inspire some of their attackers, whilst Aaron Mooy may be in the twilight of his career has proven his quality in the Premier League. Likewise Matthew Ryan is ever reliable and may end up being busy against the likes of Mbappe, Benzema and Eriksen.

Australia may take hope in the fact that the last four European teams to win the World Cup have failed to leave the group stage at the following tournament. Tunisia are only 7 rankings above the Socceroos so getting a win against them will be crucial if they want to reach the knockout stages.

Expect a spirited display but a lack of real quality will most likely see the Australians crashing out in the group stage.