BRISBANE – Captain Mile Jedinak is a certain starter for Australia’s knockout Asian Cup quarter-final, coach Ange Postecoglou says.
The Socceroos meet China in a sudden-death encounter on Thursday night in Brisbane with Jedinak now cleared of an ankle injury.
The skipper missed Saturday night’s 0-1 loss to South Korea which cost the Socceroos top spot of their group.
“Mile will be right … he will be fine,” Postecoglou said.
But the coach will be forced to recast his defence with centre-back Matthew Spiranovic suspended from the quarter-final after collecting his second yellow card of the tournament.
Spiranovic was booked for a push on a Korean attacker and later described it as “pretty soft”.
“But that’s football and I’m sure the boys will do the job in the next game and get us to the semis.”
Australia’s defeat to the Koreans was because of a first-half goal by Lee Jeong-hyeop which Postecoglou blamed on slack defending.
“We obviously conceded a pretty poor goal from us, we switched off … it was very disappointing,” Postecoglou said.
The goal cast Australia into the least preferred side of the draw — beat China, and they’ll likely confront reigning champions Japan in a Newcastle semi-final.
South Korea finished top of Group A and will travel to Melbourne for Thursday’s quarter-final against the winner of yesterday’s clash between Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia.
