Al-anwar Newspaper English news in Australia
The $1 billion divide between Australia and world champions France has been brutally exposed in the Socceroos’ Qatar World Cup opener.
Graham Arnold’s briefly side threatened to stun the world when Adelaide United winger Craig Goodwin opened the scoring in the ninth minute.
But the class of the French shone through after the opening 20 minutes as Juventus midfielder Adrien Rabiot and Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappe pulled the strings.
Mbappe gave Nathaniel Atkinson a torrid time on the left flank as France used the space on the wing to expose Australia’s defence.
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Olivier Giroud — deputising for injured Ballon D’or winner Karim Benzema — netted a brace which drew him level with Thierry Henry’s as France’s greatest scorer.
Rabiot scored the equaliser and Mbappe rounded out the scoring with the fourth goal during a dominant second half for Les Bleus.
“In all fairness it could have been more,” former Socceroos goalkeeper Mark Bosnich said on SBS.
“Some clearances off the line. Mbappe himself missed an unbelievable chance in the first half. You can see the smiles there.
“For the first ten minutes, you have to say, Australia done really well, but after that you saw the reasons why they are reigning world champions, and also the depth in their squad as well. “I will let the boys take it on in terms of this defeat might be Socceroos.
But well done to France … In my opinion, they will go deep into the tournament.”
According to transfermarkt, the Australian World Cup squad is valued at about $59m and the world champion’s squad is worth about $1.6 billion.
“Look at the end of the day, there are a quality side, they are world champions for a reason,” Socceroos boss Graham Arnold said.
“I thought the first half, we did well. Second half, we ran out of legs a bit, but that’s the type of level of those players play out.”
Goalscorer Craig Goodwin said the Socceroos showed enough to suggest they could trouble Tunisia in their next Group D fixture. “It’s a short turn around and we have to prepare for the game against Tunisia, looking at where we can possibly hurt them, and do the best we can. It’s a game we have to go into with confidence,” Goodwin said.
“I think that first half we showed we can match it with them but tactically perhaps we can do a little better, getting more pressure on the ball, but at the end of the day we have to prepare for the next game now.”
On his goal, Goodwin said: “It’s obviously mixed emotions because in the end we lose the game, but obviously an incredibly proud moment. Honoured to represent my country at the World Cup, and to score is an amazing feeling. But mixed feelings because we lost the game in the end.” Bosnich said the Socceroos could easily have conceded six goals and feared the gulf between Australia and the world’s premier teams was growing.
