The Beach Socceroos are through to the Asian World Cup Qualification semi-finals following a 6-4 victory over Afghanistan in Qatar on Thursday night.
Afghanistan stunned Australia in the fifth minute as Mohammadi scored the opening goal but in what has become typical fashion Australia responded as Panny Nikas equalized quickly adding to his impressive tally.
Nikas continued his good form and hit a beautiful curling strike, so typical of beach football which gave Australia the lead.
That lead didn’t last long as Australia gave away a penalty which allowed Azad to step up and score the penalty, leveling the scores.
Australia then went on the offensive in their best passage of play for the whole tournament, David Zdrilic and Peter Crevani both scored in quick succession giving Australia a two goal lead heading in to the third.
Early in the third another impressive free-kick from Australia, this time from Crevani gave Australia a 5-2 lead with time fast running out for Afghanistan.
Afghanistan came back and Mohammadi sealed his hat-trick with two identical goals in quick succession to get back in to the match at 5-4.
But with two minutes to go Zdrilic sealed his brace after an impressive strike from a corner kick to win the match 6-4.
The win sends Australia through to the Semi-Finals against Japan where a win would send them through to the 2013 Beach Soccer World Cup in Tahiti.
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