13:11

Oh boy. That was a very bad day at the office for Australia.

Before the recriminations, credit has to first go to Jordan for preparing and executing a perfect gameplan to neutralise Graham Arnold’s Socceroos. Defensively they were superb, denying Australia any space through the middle of the park and crowding out any crosses from wide areas. When they broke forward they broke dangerously and at speed. Khalil Bani Ateyah, Yasen Bakheet, and Mousa Suleiman were all superb, hassling and harrying and offering plenty of threat.

By contrast Australia were sloppy and off the pace. In his postmatch interview captain Mark Milligan described the performance as “a little lethargic, maybe with a few nerves.” Trent Sainsbury looked uncertain in defence, Josh Risdon was replaced at half-time, Robbie Kruse shortly afterwards, while Jamie Maclaren made little impact as the starting No9. Set-pieces were poor, there were few attacking combinations, and everything was directed through the off colour Tom Rogic.

Awer Mabil was perhaps the brightest spark, while both Chris Ikonomidis and Jackson Irvine made an impact off the bench.

There is much for Graham Arnold and his coaching team to ponder.

The match against Palestine on Friday is now a must-win and thoughts are already turning to the permutations of qualifying for the knockout phase and what might await Australia should they not progress as group winners.

Thank you for your company tonight. Stay tuned for plenty more from the UAE.