Socceroos waltz into sixth World Cup

DOHA • Australia yesterday celebrated the antics of dancing goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne, whose penalty shoot-out save against Peru saw them to a fifth straight World Cup Finals.

The 33-year-old clowned his way along the goal-line to put off the opposition's designated spot-kick takers. It worked, as he helped the Socceroos earn a 5-4 win on penalties after both sides had been deadlocked for 120 minutes.

Australia coach Graham Arnold brought Redmayne on for team captain and usual No. 1 Mathew Ryan for the final minutes of extra time as a ploy for the shoot-out.

Martin Boyle missed Australia's first penalty but the next five were all on target.

Redmayne danced and jigged along the line to unnerve the Peru players. Luis Advincula's shot first cannoned off a post, before his save from Alex Valera set off wild celebrations among the Socceroos and their few hundred supporters.

On his gamble, Arnold said that while Ryan was a "fantastic goalkeeper, at that stage of the game, I was just trying to do something that could affect them mentally".

"Maybe that's why they hit the post," he added. "They thought they had to put it closer to the post to score. It's a risk but it worked."

Arnold also insisted his team were heroes for getting through amid the trials and tribulations resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said: "What we have been through in the last year and a half with the pandemic - not being able to get back into Australia, players getting Covid, not being able to get the best squad together a lot of the time.

"I am so proud and happy for the players. The sacrifices they have made. No one thought they could do it but they kept on believing."

Redmayne denied that he was the hero of the night, saying his routine was "a little thing I do" for A-League side Sydney FC that has "proved quite successful".

"If I can gain one per cent by making a fool of myself then I will," he said. "I love this team, I love this country and I love this sport. I am under no illusions that all I did was to save one penalty."

Victory gave Australia the penultimate place available for the Finals, which start on Nov 21, and confirmed their place in Group D alongside defending champions France, Denmark and Tunisia.

Peru, 22nd in the Fifa rankings, had beaten the 42nd-ranked Socceroos 2-0 in the group stage of Russia 2018.

But, to the disappointment of their 10,000 fans - most of whom had flown halfway round the globe - they simply did not do enough in both regulation and extra time.

Most of their players shed tears of disbelief after the defeat.

It was a similarly chastening experience back home as the country's government had declared yesterday as a public holiday in anticipation of a win that never came.

"It hurts not to make it as we were doing well in the game," Peru coach Ricardo Gareca said.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE