Australia vs Chinese Taipei

Jaber Al Ahmad International Stadium is the venue as Australia look to solidify their position in the World Cup Qualifying against minnows Chinese Taipei.

Australia seem to be on their way to secure their fifth appearance at the World Cup finals on the back of an impressive start to their World Cup Qualifying journey. A comfortable 3-0 home win over Kuwait in their most recent outing extended Australia’s perfect start to their World Cup Qualifying campaign to five triumphs. When the Australians win, it tends to be with dignity, as evidenced by the fact four of their five victories in the ongoing qualifiers have yielded a winning margin of 3+ goals. Australia’s almost perfect home record against Chinese Taipei gives the ‘Socceroos’ supporters enough reason for optimism, considering the hosts have won all but one of their seven World Cup Qualifying meetings with this opposition by an aggregate score of 30-4 (D1).

Meanwhile, the visitors have experienced contrasting fortunes in their opening six World Cup Qualifying matches, losing all six by an aggregate score of 27-2. Away from home, Vom Ca-nhum’s men have suffered three defeats in as many qualifying games this campaign, conceding 16 unanswered goals, with 62.5% (10) of them coming in the second half of play. Chinese Taipei’s tendency to collapse early in the games has seen them fall behind in the first 22 minutes in each of their three World Cup Qualifying trips, conceding first by the fifth minute in the last two. The fact they have lost all three of their World Cup Qualifying games away to Australia by an aggregate scoreline of 14-2 douses any embers of optimism that they can pull off a miracle here.