The hype for Australia’s battle with Denmark had been building for days and we had to get up at 7am to take a five-hour trip with our connected cab driver to get to Samara – the destination for Thursday’s highly-anticipated clash.
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And it is safe to say that it’s the scariest trip we have ever taken, but we will do anything to see our boys progress.
The line-up comes out and we are apprehensive at the sight of Nabbout starting, but other than that we don’t mind our chances.
It was like a home match, with Aussies outnumbering the Danes about 3-1.
Chants of “she’s one of our own, she’s one of our own, princess Mary, she’s one of our own” ring out before Men At Work’s classic Down Under belts out of the speakers and the Socceroos fans go wild!
Now it’s time for the game to start. And after seven minutes the vocal Australian crowd is silenced by Christian Eriksen, who is basically a one-man band for Denmark.
But we still hold hope.
Then, a conspicuous cross and appeal sees us rise asking for VAR, which is convenient as we all think it holds no place in football.
Luckily, 20 seconds later the referee calls for the video replay and our captain Mile Jedinak steps up to take a controversial penalty. He converts and the stadium is now rocking!
The game continues and we create more and more chances, but in the end we can’t break through.
We leave the stadium with the same feeling as the France game – happy with a great performance, but not with the result we hoped for.
From here, we need some luck.
For Australia to progress out of the group stage it needs to beat Peru and hope France defeats Denmark. The Aussies also have to make up the two goals difference on the Danes to reach the round of 16.
We now have a few days to wait until Australia’s clash against Peru, which is in Sochi.
The World Cup is now going crazy and with every game the excitement builds! Get around the Socceroos!
- Corey Smith is the Sebastopol Vikings senior manager. He is touring Russia to watch the World Cup with a group of Ballarat-based friends and will provide regular columns for The Courier during his travels.