Khalifa Ayed had put the hosts ahead after 17 minutes from the penalty spot after Rhys Williams was sent off for bringing down Imad Al Hosni inside the area.

Oman had plenty of chances to increase their lead further but Australia drew level three minute before the break through Luke Wilkshire.

Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer made a number of crucial saves in the second half and the Socceroos secured the three points when Emerton scored with eight minutes remaining.

The victory means Australia are top of Group B with seven points while Oman drop to third with four points.

"The experience of the Australians helped them to win as they managed to come back from a goal down and equalise before winning the game despite playing with 10 men for a long period in the game," said Oman coach Claude Le Roy.

"It is really a disappointing result and I really can't describe what happened in the game as we did everything right and created a lot of chances but yet we couldn't score."

Meanwhile, two second-half goals from Bader Al Motawaa secured a 2-1 win for Kuwait over Indonesia to see the West Asians move up to second in the standings.

Bambang Pamungkas had put the visitors ahead in the 33rd minute but Al Motowaa equalised on the hour when he converted a penalty before he snatched the winner in the 88th minute.

Kuwait travel to Indonesia next Wednesday hoping to secure a second successive away win in qualifying after they defeated Australia in Canberra in March.

"I hope that we can carry on with our good performance and I'm confident we can get a good result in Jakarta next Wednesday just like we did against Australia," said Kuwait coach Goran Tufegdzic.

"We must put more effort in the remaining matches if we want to qualify for the finals."