Asian Cup 2019: Australia boss Arnold full of confidence after Palestine retort

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  • Asian Cup champions Australia will head into Tuesday’s Group B-decider against fallen dark horses Syria “expecting to win” after they rebounded from a shock opening loss to down Palestine, according to head coach Graham Arnold.

    The Socceroos fell to a 1-0 defeat to Jordan last Sunday when the 55-year-old’s first competitive match of his second stint in charge got off to an alarming stint. Doubts were cast aside, however, at a sold-out Rashid Stadium on Friday through unanswered goals – all via crosses – from Jamie Maclaren, Awer Mabil and Apostolo Giannou.

    “Palestine pretty much tried to play the same game plan as Jordan did,” said Arnold, whose side wrap up their pool commitments at Al Ain’s Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium against a nation they defeated during October’s 2017’s World Cup play-offs. “We obviously haven’t been that long together – the players didn’t have a long camp like some of the other countries, so it’s taken a bit of time to get things going.

    “But as I said after the Jordan game, when you lose you learn. And we learned a lot from that day.

    “We went onto the training pitch, we worked hard to fix that issue if the teams play quite defensive.

    “Now it’s all about the Syria game. We’ll get back on the training field, and recover well.

    “We’ll go into the Syria game with all guns blazing and expecting to win.

    “We’ll get better and better as we go. There’s been a lot of changes in the team, a lot of changes in the staff, so we’re a new team, and will still grow.”

    Familiar faces will greet the Socceroos in midweek. A nervy 3-2 aggregate win was claimed under predecessor Ange Postecoglou, from which early elimination was avoided when star Syria striker Omar Al Somah’s late free-kick in extra time rattled the post.

    The Syrians, however, have gained only one point in the UAE and sacked manager Bernd Stange after Thursday’s 2-0 defeat to Jordan put them on the cusp of elimination.

    “This will be a difficult game,” insisted Arnold. “We know them well; we played against Syria in the World Cup qualifier.

    “I wasn’t here but my players do know them. We’ll recover, analyse them, and go out expecting to win the game.”

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