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Captain Mile Jedinak was the hat-trick hero as Australia defeated Honduras 3-1 on aggregate in Sydney on Wednesday to book their place at the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals in Russia next summer.
Placed in the Asian confederation, the Aussies have played 21 matches to reach this stage after two qualifying groups and a further playoff against Syria. Their opponents were looking to reach their third World Cup in a row having exceeded expectations in recent years.
However, in front of 77,000 fans, they would be on the end of some clinical dead ball finishing from Mile Jedinak who would put a stop to their hopes of another appearance on the global stage.
In the first 45, the home side goes closest when Tim Cahill finds Matthew Jurman whose weak effort is easily collected by Honduran keeper Donis Escober five minutes before the break.
Eight minutes after the re-start the Socceroos made the breakthrough. Jedinak opened his account for the evening when his deflected free-kick wrongly footed Donis Escober.
They then had the chance to double their advantage from the spot on 71 minutes when Bryan Acosta handled in the area. The Aston Villa midfielder stepped up to get his second goal of the evening and put Australia in control.
Twelve minutes later it was three thanks to another penalty. Jerry Palacious dragged down Robbie Kruse and was lucky not to be sent off for being the last man. Jedinak completed one of the easiest hat-tricks he would ever score by sending Escober the wrong way.
Alberth Elis bundled home a scrappy consolation in injury time. Australia won 3-1 to advance to their fourth straight world cup much to the delight of their fans who mark the occasion with fireworks on the harbor bridge.
(CGTN)
