Perth Stadium is filling up with a light show under way. Who is staying up to watch Saudi Arabia’s match? (KO 2am AEST)
In case you missed it, which I’m sure you didn’t, it’s a double-national-team-matches-week for Australia and the Matildas have alreadydispatched Argentina 4-0 in a friendly on Monday. Striker Amy Sayer scored two goals on her return from an ACL injury, with one more each for Michelle Heyman and Emily van Egmond.
The other news from the Matildas camp was thatJoe Montemurro was finally confirmed as the new coach, taking over from interim coach Tom Sermanni.
Behichis speaking pre-game. How has he recovered from the ALM grand final?
On what style we can expect from the Socceroos:
Warm-ups
Official word is that it’s a sellout in Perth. That should be about 60,000.
The Socceroos did arrive on time to the stadium this time around … unlike last time they facedJapan.
Popovic is speaking to the broadcaster. Asked whether it’s a good time to play Japan:
Aziz Behich joins the squad – and in the starting lineup – fresh(ish) from his A-League Men championship win with Melbourne City. I can’t say it was a pretty demonstration of football, that is for sure.
Something to give sustenance while we’remissing Jackson Irvine, thanks to Dave Squires.
Another player not featuring for the Socceroos isNectarios Triantis. The Sunderland midfielder withdrew from the squad at the last minute as he weighs up whether to change his allegiance and turn out for Greece.
The midfielder impressed out on loan at Hibernian last season and is attracting attention from across Europe and the MLS, German side Fortuna Düsseldorf are very keen on the 22-year-old.
Tony Popovic said he’s “not too sure where it exactly sits”.
Craig Goodwin, Nishan Velupillay, Mathew Leckie, Jackson Irvine and Kusini Yengi were all left out of the squad due to injury and fitness concerns. In their place are some long-awaited returning players and a couple of fresh faces.
AsJohn Duerdenwrites, Samurai Blue have earned the right to bring a squad containing just seven players with more than 10 caps toAustraliafor this match. They have dominated the group, booked their World Cup tickets and now have some freedom to experiment. It certainly seems to work in the Socceroos’ favour that many of Japan’s stars have been given the OK to head off on holiday.
The Socceroos have not beatenJapanfor 16 years. Coach Tony Popovic insists that can change tonight.
My colleagueJoey Lynchis on the ground at Optus Stadium to bring you the match report later.
On to those pesky permutations. Here is where things stand:
The general gist is the Socceroos can all but secure their place with a win tonight; a draw or loss make things a bit more complicated.Jack Snapehas broken everything down in more detail here:
Even if they win tonight, we won’t know whetherAustraliahave qualified automatically for absolute 100% fully certain sureness until after theSaudi Arabia v Bahrain match kicking off at Friday 2am AEST.
G’day and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the World Cup 2026 qualifier betweenAustraliaand Japan in Perth. My name isJo Khanand I’m here to take you through the pre-game news, live football and some post-match analysis.
At the moment my brain hurts from thinking about the Group C permutations and what it means for Australia but one thing is locked in – theSamurai Blue have already booked their spotat the North America tournament. However, it is most definitely a crunch match for Australia, can they lock in an automatic qualification?
Looking back to the Socceroos most recent outing in this Asian qualifying campaign, it was goals from Jackson Irvine and Nishan Velupillay that gave Australia acrucial 2-0 winin China in late March. This solidified their spot just below Japan in the Group C table – I’ll get to those details shortly.
To the task at hand now, if you have any comments or questions feel free tosend me an email.
Kick-off is in just over an hour: 7.10pm local / 9.10pm AEST / 8.10pm JST
Let’s get into it!