Australians wary of Saudi 'games' ahead of crunch World Cup qualifier

Reuters

15 hours ago

HONG KONG, June 8 (Reuters) - Australia's Connor Metcalfe has warned his teammates to avoid reacting to Saudi Arabia's gamesmanship when the nations face off in Jeddah on Tuesday with automatic qualification for next year's World Cup finals on the line.
Tony Popovic's outfit go into the meeting at the King Abdullah Sports City with one foot on the plane to North America after a 1-0 win over Japan on Thursday bought the Socceroos breathing room in their quest for a place at the finals.
Despite that advantage, Metcalfe has sought to ensure the Australians do not allow their focus to slip ahead of a crucial 90 minutes that will be played out in front of more than 50,000 fans and in stifling heat.
"There's going to be a lot of diving, a lot of acting, but it's about just blocking the noise out, focusing on ourselves and doing the best we can," said the St. Pauli midfielder.
"You can't get affected by any of it, because if you get affected by any of their little games or noise or whatever it is, then it's just going to affect the game, and they're going to get that little advantage over you."
Australia hold a three point lead over Herve Renard's side and a large enough goal difference to leave the Saudis needing to win by five goals to climb into second and claim the last automatic berth from the current phase of Asian preliminaries.
Japan have already secured top spot in Group C while Iran, Uzbekistan, South Korea and Jordan have taken the other berths available to Asian nations at the expanded World Cup from the third phase of qualifying.
A further two spots will be up for grabs from a fourth round of qualifiers to be played in October.
Anything other than a significant win over the Australians would see Saudi Arabia finish third in Group C and enter that next phase, where they would join the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iraq and Indonesia.
Also battling for a place in the fourth round are Oman and Palestine, with the pair looking to secure either third or fourth place in Group B on Tuesday.
The two countries face off against each other in Amman with the Palestinians needing to win to climb above Rashid Jaber's side and keep their World Cup qualification dream alive.
Neither nation has played at the World Cup and Palestine go into the meeting having handed Kuwait a 2-0 defeat on Thursday to stay in the hunt for a spot in the United States, Canada and Mexico.