All about the Australia Team at Football World Cup 2018
This will be the fourth consecutive World Cup that Australia have qualified for. They were the penultimate country to take their place and worked harder than anyone else. They travelled around 250,000km including trips to far-flung destinations including Bangladesh, Malaysia, Iran, Japan, and Honduras. The Socceroos played 22 games to book their place in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, having failed to secure direct entry to Russia due to an inferior goal difference to Saudi Arabia.
Following Australia’s playoff win over Honduras in November, their manager Ange Postecoglou quit his post and a replacement has yet to be appointed.
Tips for Betting on Australia in the World Cup 2018
Australia’s first match is against France on 16 June, they are huge outsiders at 16/1. The Australians weren’t great travellers in qualifying only managing to win once in five away games.
France is among the favourites to win the tournament and Deschamps always has one eye on defence. With the technically excellent Hugo Lloris in goal, Samuel Umtiti, who is shining for Barcelona, and club teammate Lucas Digne they are strong in this area. A France winning to nil looks likely, with Les Bleus managing five clean sheets during qualifying against similar opponents to Australia. This bet is available at 7/10 (decimal: 1.7).
Next up Australia face Denmark, with Australia at 4/1 (decimal: 5) to win this match, the odds are tempting for a punt. Denmark was one of the European teams that needed a play-off to come through the UEFA qualifying process. The Australians have not kept too many clean sheets but they did well enough in the Confederations Cup to suggest they can be competitive at the World Cup. The recent draws with Cameroon and Chile may stand them in good stead and under a new manager and it could well be worth opposing a Denmark side who seem overrated by the bookies.
Australia’s final group game is against Peru. Bookmakers have Peru as the favourite to win out of these two teams, who both had to come through a play-off clash to reach the World Cup. Currently, Australia to win is 23/10 (decimal: 3.3) with Peru at 11/10 (decimal: 2.1).
The Australian team will be aware that stopping Guerrero could stem the flow of the Peruvian attack. There is every chance this match will finish all square, with the draw price of 21/10 (decimal: 3.1) having plenty of appeal for what will likely be an evenly-matched encounter.
Betting Odds on Australia to Win the World Cup 2018
Australia will play in Group C against France, Peru and Denmark in the group stages of the 2018 World Cup.
Currently, the odds on Australia winning the competition are 300/1 (decimal: 301), so the bookmakers are not optimistic the team will progress far. This is based on a tough draw for the Socceroos and the fact they have failed to progress beyond the group stage at the last two World Cups. They have once managed to reach the round of 16, at the 2006 World Cup in Germany but the lost 1-0 to eventual winners Italy.
Expected Australia Lineup at the World Cup
The Socceroos booked their ticket to the 2018 FIFA World Cup after a 22-game qualification run where they scored 51 goals and conceded just 22. The first and away leg of their play-off with Honduras was a goalless draw but their home win of 3 goals to 1 led to great celebrations for the whole of Australia.
The team that started the final game saw Matt Ryan between the sticks and behind a defence made up of Matthew Jurman, who received a yellow card after just three minutes, Bailey Wright and Trent Sainsbury. The midfield was made up of Mark Milligan, Mathew Leckie, Aaron Mooy, Mile Jedinak and Aziz Behich. The evergreen Tim Cahill led the attack alongside Tomas Rogic. It was a great night for the captain, Mile Jedinak, as he scored a hat-trick.
At present Australia present something of a challenge for opponents scouting them. There is uncertainty due to the fact that they currently are without a manager. Whether the over-reliance on Tim Cahill, who is now 38, for goals will continue is unknown. Although with Tom Rogic, Aaron Mooy, and Massimo Luongo, there is talent elsewhere, not to mention Mile Jedinak. It will depend on who takes on the Head Coach role and their ability to get the best out of them and their team-mates.
Ange Postecoglou, the previous manager of the Australian national team, preferred the controversial 3-2-4-1 formation. Whether or not this will be retained when a new manager is appointed is unknown. This leaves us in a position of not knowing how the Socceroos will line up or who will be in the squad, which strangely could give them a bit of an advantage. Any team wanting to analyse them only has historical data which could, or could not, be totally irrelevant.
There has been little noise and few rumours on who the replacement could be following the resignation of Postecoglou following their qualification for the FIFA World Cup in November 2017. Australia claims to have received over 200 applications from around the world to take on the job but surely for a job such as this, the best candidates almost certainly won’t apply, they will get approached by the nine-man selection panel which includes a professional headhunter in its ranks.
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Tim Cahill
Tim Cahill last played for A-League club Melbourne City, but left the club on 6th December 2017, his 38th birthday. Before playing for Melbourne City, he played for Millwall, Everton, the New York Red Bulls, Shanghai Shenhua, and Hangzhou Greentown. Cahill usually plays as an attacking midfielder, but has also played as a forward on more than one occasion. Cahill has earned over 100 caps for his country and he was the first Australian to score at a FIFA World Cup. Cahill has scored in three World Cups and with 50 goals is Australia’s highest goalscorer of all time.
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Aaron Mooy
Aaron Mooy is an attack-minded central midfield player. He is a regular player for Huddersfield Town and was an integral part of the team promoted to the Premier League. Terriers manager David Wagner recently said that Mooy is the heartbeat of his team. Mooy was born in Sydney and made his professional debut in Scotland with St Mirren. Following a return to Australia, he signed for Manchester City in 2016, although he never played for them. He was loaned out immediately to Huddersfield Town before signing permanently with them in June 2017. Mooy has received 31 caps from his national team.
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