Australia pulled off one of the biggest surprises of Round 1, securing an impressive 2-0 victory over Türkiye despite coming under huge pressure for large parts of the match.
The Socceroos defended brilliantly throughout and punished Türkiye on the counter-attack, whilst goalkeeper Patrick Beach produced several huge saves to preserve the clean sheet.
Here are our Scout Notes from the game, featuring match stats from our World Cup Toolkit page.
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AUSTRALIA 2-0 TURKIYE
- Goals: Irankunda, Metcalfe
- Assists: Okon
- Tackle bonus: Okon | Yuksek
- Shots on target bonus: Irankunda
- Top points scorers: Beach (11), Metcalfe (11), Irankunda (10)
TEAM STATS
PLAYER STATS
SCOUT NOTES
- Australia may have won the game, but Türkiye completely dominated possession with 72% of the ball. They also produced 30 attempts on goal, 21 more than the Socceroos. However, they only narrowly edged Australia for both big chances and xG (expected goals). That tells its own story. Türkiye fired plenty of shots, but they struggled to create enough clear-cut opportunities.
- The first half remained far more balanced than the second. Although Vincenzo Montella’s side controlled close to 70% possession, they failed to create a single big chance, whilst Australia nearly doubled their xG.
- Türkiye started aggressively and their high pressure forced several mistakes from the Australia backline. Barış Alper Yılmaz ($6.1m) slipped a brilliant pass into the path of Arda Güler ($7.0m), but the youngster failed to make proper contact with his strike.
- Australia punished that miss immediately. Paul Okon ($4.7m) launched a superb lofted through-ball from inside his own half into the path of talented youngster Nestory Irankunda ($5.1m), who burst between three Türkiye defenders before calmly slotting beyond goalkeeper Uğurcan Çakır ($4.2m) to make it 1-0.
- Türkiye responded quickly. Centre-back Abdülkerim Bardakcı ($4.0m) unleashed a powerful long-range effort which crashed against the post.
- The second half then became even more one-sided statistically. Montella’s side ramped up the pressure and finished the half with 20 shots, two big chances and an xG of 0.92.
- Star attacker Kenan Yıldız ($7.0m), who started on the bench after recently recovering from injury, replaced Yılmaz on the left wing and immediately increased Türkiye’s attacking threat.
- Orkun Kökçü ($6.0m) then won a dangerous free-kick outside the box. Güler whipped a low left-footed effort towards goal, but goalkeeper Patrick Beach ($3.5m) reacted brilliantly to keep the strike out.
- Türkiye continued to push forward relentlessly, but that only allowed Australia to strike again on the counter-attack. Connor Metcalfe ($5.3m) drove towards the edge of the box and, instead of looking for a pass, unleashed a fierce effort towards the goalkeeper’s near post. The strike completely caught Çakır off guard and doubled Australia’s advantage.
- Türkiye still had one final chance to spark a comeback before full-time. Centre-back Merih Demiral ($4.0m) delivered a perfect pass into Kerem Aktürkoğlu ($6.2m), but the winger fired straight at Beach. Anywhere else and it likely would have made it 2-1.
- Australia executed their gameplan brilliantly throughout the match. They soaked up pressure, stayed compact defensively and exploded forward quickly on the counter-attack. They may need a very similar approach against a confident USA side in Round 2.
- Meanwhile, Türkiye could already view their clash against Paraguay as a must-win game. Despite producing a huge volume of shots, too many efforts failed to properly test the goalkeeper. That could become a major weakness moving forward.
