Brett Emerton has sealed Australia's progression to the second stage of World Cup qualifying scoring a brace in the Socceroos' impressive 3-1 win over Qatar in Doha on Sunday morning.
Coach Pim Verbeek opted for a more attacking set-up in this match and his decision to move Emerton into the midfield paid huge dividends. The 29-year-old worked brilliantly in an attacking combination with Harry Kewell, Mark Bresciano and Brett Holman, putting Australia in front on 17 minutes and then doubling the lead 10 minutes into the second half. Kewell sealed it with a third on 75 minutes, while Qatar got a very late consolation.
The win puts Australia three points clear on top of Group 1, meaning the Socceroos will definitely finish top two and qualify as one of the final 10 teams in Asia. The other spot will go to either Qatar or Iraq, who are both even on points and play in Dubai next week. This result also means Australia's match against China in Sydney next week is a dead rubber.
The opening goal came as a result of rapid ball movement and some slack Qatari defence. Fed by Holman, Bresciano gathered the ball in acres of space on the left and picked out Kewell with a quality cross, but the striker's legs somehow failed to make contact. Emerton had followed through on the right, however, and unmarked he easily slotted the ball into the net.
While Australia got the only goal of the first half, Qatar did much of the attacking in the opening 45 minutes with Mark Schwarzer forced into three excellent saves.
In the second minute the Australian keeper was forced to dive to his left to knock away a long-range free kick from Wesam Rizik, while just before the half hour, Sebastian Quintana charged past Jade North then produced a fierce shot from an angle which Schwarzer knocked over.
Fabio Cesar then chanced his hand from the dead ball on the angle and the keeper managed to tip the ball over.
Apart from the goal, Australia failed to produce anything in the first half to really worry a Qatari defence which lost captain Abdullah Kone after just 30 minutes through injury. The best chance involved Bresciano just three minutes after he had set up the goal. He was able to round the keeper but failed to find Holman unmarked in the middle.
Qatar should have been level early in the second half, with Talal Al Bloushi given a free header from close range but it went over the bar.
The importance of that miss hit home on 56 minutes when Emerton was there again to finish off Australia's first decent chance of the half. A long ball was headed by Kewell on to Holman, who looped a pass to Emerton, who was clever with his finish, squeezing the ball under Mohamed Saqr.
Two minutes later, it looked to be 3-0 when Kewell rattled the back of the net from a Bresciano pass, but Emerton was called for a dubious foul off the ball. Kewell's sense of injustice was lifted when he got his name on the scoresheet in the final 15 minutes. Holman's cross was not cleared and Kewell had a minute to smash the ball home.
Quintana was unlucky not to have earned a penalty in the final 20 minutes as David Carney's