Sometimes football is not beautiful. Sometimes doing just enough, for just long enough, can lay the foundation, open the door. So it was at Al Janoub Stadium, where a counterattack ended Australia’s agony and Denmark’s World Cup campaign. It took 60 minutes for Mat Leckie to score a brilliant solo goal, an endless hour of defending and some positive moments, and a goal from Tunisia against France that meant the Socceroos would have to win or be out themselves.
In the end it was Denmark’s second-half impotence that ended their tournament prematurely, their early brightness dissipating in the face of a Socceroos side which left it late but rallied when it had to and once again displayed a level of quality belying their inexperience.
