Australia will now begin their final warm-up stage with some international friendlies before the World Cup. They will play against the Czech Republic on Friday in Austria, with the Czechs looking to test their squad waiting for the next qualifying stage.
Australia did well to grab 19 points after 10 matches in the Asian Qualifiers (5-1-4) but they finished at the 3rd spot behind Japan and Saudi Arabia. They played a couple of really tough playoff matches against Syria, where after two 1-1 draws they won in the extra time. After that they had another playoff round in an inter-continental clash against Honduras. After a goal-less draw on the road they won by 1-3 at home and claimed their spot in the World Cup. They didn’t have much luck in their two friendlies since then, losing badly to Norway by 1-4 and drawing a blank against Colombia.
The Czech Republic were pretty mediocre in the World Cup qualifiers, as they eventually finished at the 3rd spot of Group C (4-3-3). They lost a lot of points against weaker teams like Norway and Northern Ireland, so the Czech Republic didn’t deserve to go to the World Cup. Since then they have recorded a couple of wins against Iceland (2-1) and Qatar (1-0), while they lost to Uruguay and defeated China to finish 3rd in the Chinese Cup a couple of months ago. With the UEFA Nations League coming up next October, the Czechs will be looking to prepare a competitive squad.
