Australia held on for a 1-1 draw against Cameroon in St Petersburg. The Socceroos fell behind but allied through a Mark Milligan penalty to equalise.

The result follows on from a 3-2 loss to Germany in Sochi and a 4-0 thrashing by Brazil in Melbourne.

AUSTRALIA v CAMEROON PIC SPECIAL

Cameroon had 19 shots to Australia's 5 and had more clearcut chances, with forward Vincent Aboubakar particularly wasteful in front of goal. On another day Aboubakar could have had several goals.

But Postecoglou believed it was an "even game".

"I thought we controlled large parts of it," he told the media. "They were very dangerous in transition and a couple of times got in behind us, but overall I thought we worked our way into the game really well and controlled large parts of it.

"We lacked a little bit of composure in the final third to get some meaningful chances but we still had a couple of very good chances, particularly early in the second half. Credit to the players, they worked awfully hard. They were out on the feet at the end.

"In both games we’ve performed in the manner we want to. We’re playing the best here and that’s part of the experience. We were disappointed with the goal we conceded. We’re still having little laspes that are costing us.

"Aside from that I thought… for large parts of it we dictated the game. We pressed hard, I thought we got the goal we deserved."



Postecoglou said the Socceroo defence contained the African champions well. Australia has conceded 10 goals in its past four matches with its controversial three-man backline.

"We defended really well, we scrambled really well," he said.

"I’m trying to think of a save that Matty Ryan had to make of significance. They had a lot of balls and some half chances, but we defended pretty desperately in the end. I thought our defending was very solid from the whole team."

He added: “We got sucker punched a minute before half-time. (It’s) very easy for us to come in deflated. I think that we had two really good chances early on in the first (second) half, we pressed forward and we got the goal I thought we deserved”.

The Socceroos boss also saved special praise for Alex Gersbach who got a rare start and won the penalty.

“I thought that Alex was excellent," he said. "Alex coped really well tonight. His first game for a while for us up against some very good opposition. He’s got great technique. He’s got great composure. He did well for the penalty and he put a couple of good balls in. He was good tonight.”

Chile and the Socceroos next meet in Moscow. The two nations last met in the Wolrld Cup in 2014, where La Roja won 3-1.



Postecoglou said he won't be changing his approach in the final group game, which Australia must win to have any chance of progressing.

"They’re games that we want to win so nothing really changes," he said.

"It’s another challenge against a top nation and we’ll try and take the game to them and try and get maximum points. Nothing really changes. We’re still alive in the tournament, a point tonight keeps us in it.

"We’ll have an opportunity to get three points in the final game and see how far that takes us. We'll just keep doing what we're doing. We're playing against theworld's best and we haven't sat back for a moment. That's all I want to see.

"We won't keep sitting back, we'll get to where we want to get to. We'll be relentless in that."