Australia‘s hopes of automatically qualifying for the 2022 World Cup have been all but dashed after twice surrendering leads to draw 2-2 with a depleted Oman on Wednesday morning.
Though good value for the 1-0 lead they took into the dressing room at half-time in Muscat — delivered thanks to a 15th-minute penalty from Jamie Maclaren — another dispiriting second half fadeout prevented coach Graham Arnold’s side from finishing the job against Al-Ahmar, who themselves needed a win to keep their campaign alive.
Despite being able to re-take their lead through Aaron Mooy with just over 10 minutes to go after Abdullah Fawaz had tied things up in the 49th minute, Fran Karacic‘s inelegant challenge on Muhsen Al-Ghassani in the dying stages would prove disastrous: giving Fawaz a chance to tie things up from the spot that the 25-year-old duly took.
