THAT'S ALL FROM SAPPORO!
Australia defeated Argentina 2-0 at the Sapporo Dome following an exciting group stage encounter in the Tokyo Olympics.
The Socceroos opened the scoring after 14 minutes when Joel King set Lachlan Wales in front of Jeremias Ledesma with a crisp cross from the left flank and the centre-forward didn’t miss.
The Aussies came close to a second when Riley McGree produced an astonishing overhead kick inside the box but was denied by Ledesma on 28 minutes.
Argentina responded in the 34th minute with a stunning curling shot by Esequiel Barco down the left flank that rattled Thomas Glover’s crossbar.
Australia then came excruciatingly close to a second goal as King set Wales up again in front of Ledesma and the latter’s shot rattled the post – wouldn’t have mattered though as the former was caught offside in the build-up after 43 minutes.
Things got worse for the Albiceleste in the second minute of stoppage time when Francisco Ortega was sent off with a second yellow card within a few seconds for what the referee deemed to be aggressive marking on McGree.
Argentina, though, wouldn’t be daunted as they continued to dominate possession and tempo in the second half, even though they were a man down.
But Australia continued to register the big chances with Wales failing to beat Ledesma one on one on 71 minutes and Connor Metcalfe almost catching the Argentine keeper out of position with a long-range shot from the middle of the park two minutes later.
It didn’t matter, however, as Marco Tilio hit the back of the net with a fine left-footed shot at the edge of the box on 80 minutes thanks to Mitch Duke’s assist just a few seconds after coming on to the pitch.
Duke almost made it three in the fifth minute of stoppage time but just missed Ledesma’s bottom left corner.
Thank you for following the action with us at SunSport, have a lovely afternoon!
