Corey Gameiro was once again the hero for the Qantas Young Socceroos when the substitute scored a very late goal in stoppage time to level the scores when it seemed that the Australian tournament campaign was about to end.

Going into the match, the Young Socceroos knew that anything but a loss would get them through to the knockout stage of the tournament, but they began the match in very positive fashion and were the better of the two teams within the first 15 minutes.

The Young Socceroos applied significant amount of pressure on the Saudi goal early as indicated by a number of corners in a very short period of time that put the Middle Eastern opponents on the back foot.

Midway through the first half Saudi Arabia began to create chances of their own, but many of their shots were wide of the target and didn’t trouble the Young Socceroos keeper Paul Izzo.

In the 26th minute, Izzo was called into action to make a good reflex save from Saleh Khalid who shot from inside the Young Socceroos penalty box.

Just before the half time whistle, Izzo pulled off a great double save to deny the Saudis and keep the scores level going into the break.

The second half saw the Saudis take the game to the Young Socceroos and within the first five minutes had a barrage of corners that mirrored the Australian attack of the first half but the Young Socceroos defence held firm.

The Saudis broke the deadlock three minutes before the hour-mark when Ahmed Alshehri set-up Al Muwallad who shot from 14 yards out into the top right corner of the goal giving Izzo no chance of saving.

The goal spurned the Young Socceroos into action and coach Paul Okon made a telling tactical change to chase the result, that being Gameiro coming on in the 66th minute for Ryan Edwards who was wearing the captain’s arm band.

From there on, the Young Socceroos pushed forward and created a number of opportunities that came very close to finding the back of the net, in particular headers from Reece Caira, in the 62nd minute, and Corey Gameiro in the 81st minute.

In addition the Young Socceroos had numerous free-kicks around the box but  Terry Antonis was unable to do any great damage.

With the clock ticking over the 90 minute mark and the very real possibility of Young Socceroos being knocked out of the tournament, Antonis found himself with the ball in the Saudi box and lobbed a pass to Gameiro who hit a perfect left-footed strike on the turn to the far post which levelled the scores and ensured the Young Socceroos passage to the quarter-final stage.

After the match, coach Paul Okon praised his team’s never-say-die mentality in grinding out the important result.

“Football delivers dramatic finishes at times and tonight was one of those. Fortunately we were able to equalise and qualify for the quarter finals,” said Okon

“To back up only two days after a very tough and physical game against Syria was very difficult and Saudi Arabia certainly made us work for every scoring opportunity.

“After Saudi Arabia scored we were able to lift the intensity and after so many chances we were able to score.

“I am amazed at the courage and self belief of our players and our mentality is to never give up and we deserve our place in the quarter finals.

"I would like to congratulate all the players and my staff on their determination and hard work. We now will recover and prepare ourselves for the most important match in the tournament."

In the other Group D match, Qatar defeated Syria 2-1.

The Young Socceroos will meet Jordan in the quarter-finals of the AFC U19 Championship on Sunday evening  at the Fujairah Stadium, Al Fujairah City (Kick-Off 7:00pm local, 2:00am AEDT) with the winner progressing to the semi-finals of the tournament and also booking a berth at the FIFA U20 World Cup in Turkey in June/July 2013.

 

Match Details
Qantas Young Socceroos         1 (Corey Gameiro 90+1’) 
Saudi Arabia                            1 (Fhad Al Muwallad 57 )

Qantas Young Socceroos line-up: 1.Paul IZZO (gk), 2. Joshua BRILLANTE 3.Connor CHAPMAN, 6.Reece CAIRA, 9. Adam TAGGART, 10.Jamie MACLAREN (8.Terry ANTONIS 55’), 11.Ryan EDWARDS (c) (7.Corey GAMEIRO 66’), 14.Ryan WILLIAMS 15.Jason GERIA (5.Corey BROWN 56’), 16.Jackson IRVINE, 22.David VRANKOVIC
Substitutes Not Used:  4.Curtis GOOD, 12.Liam JACOB (gk) 13.Tom KING 17.Hayden MORTON 18.Jack DUNCAN (gk) 19.Benjamin GARUCCIO 20.MuSTAFA AMINI 21.Mitchell OXBORROW, 23.Travis COOPER
Yellow Cards: Reece Caira 44’

Saudi Arabia line-up:  2.Almousa Rayan SIDDIQ E, 3.Abdullah Mohammed M MADU (C), 4.ABSI, 5.Alyami Saeed AWADH S, 6.MAJED, 7.Fhad Mosaed M ALMUWALLAD, 10.ASIRI (18.ALAMMAR 79’), 12.Alharbi AHMAD ALI S (gk), 13.Ali Faraj M ALZUBAIDI, 17.ALSHEHRI (11.ALJAMAN 73’), 19.Saleh Khalid M ALSHEHRI (9.ALGHAMDI 84’)
Substitutes Not Used: 1.AL Arraf, Abdullah FAISAL M (gk),  8.Mustafa Mahdi M ALBASSAS,  9.Abdulrahman KAMEL A,  14.KANNO, Mohamed Ibrahim A,  15.ALQUTAM, KHALID HADI H,  16.ALSUWAT, ABDULMAJEED ABDULLAH M,  20.ALNAKHLI,  21.Waleed ABU MILHAH (gk),  22.HAZAZI,  23.Amaar ALI H ALDOHAIM, 
Yellow Cards: MAJED 63’, ALJAMAN 86’