Saudi Arabia 1-2 Australia: Centurion Ryan saves late penalty as World Cup berth booked
Australia are heading to the World Cup after they fought back to defeat Saudi Arabia 2-1 in Jeddah on Tuesday.
Mat Ryan saved a late penalty in his 100th game as Australia came from behind to defeat Saudi Arabia 2-1 in Jeddah and confirm their place at the 2026 World Cup in North America.
Martin Boyle had already blazed a great chance wide by the time Abdulrahman Al-Aboud tapped in a 19th-minute opener after good work from Salem Al Dawsari and Feras Al Brikan.
Ali Majrashi and Musab Al Juwayr missed good opportunities to extend the lead before Australia levelled three minutes before the break, with Connor Metcalfe applying a cool finish after great hold-up play from Cameron Burgess.
The Socceroos took the lead three minutes after the restart when Mitch Duke met Boyle's left-wing free-kick with a glancing header into the far corner.
Majrashi had a straight red overturned for a foul on Boyle following a VAR review. Saudi Arabia then had a spot-kick when Al Dawsari was felled by Jason Geria but Ryan denied the same man, whose effort to the bottom-right corner was read by the Australia goalkeeper.
Tony Popovic's side, who were all-but there anyway, consequently qualify automatically from Group C of the third round of Asian qualifiers, with Saudi Arabia now heading for the fourth round of qualification.
Data Debrief: Socceroos on a roll
Australia have now racked up four straight wins in AFC World Cup qualifiers, their last joint-longest winning streak was from October 10, 2017 to October 7, 2021.
Ryan made five saves in this match, with the last time he logged more in a game for the Socceroos coming in February 2024 against South Korea at the AFC Asian Cup (seven).
For Saudi Arabia, this marked the first time they have lost after scoring the opening goal in the AFC World Cup qualifiers for the first time since August 29, 2017 against UAE (10 games without defeat).
