Sky Sports — as reported by The Guardian — called it the worst match of the 2026 World Cup. Ajdin Hrustic called it a job done. Both things can be true — and now Australia have to go and stop Mohamed Salah.
Australia and Paraguay played out a goalless draw in Group D that, by most accounts, produced very little worth rewatching. Sky Sports, as reported by The Guardian, led the criticism — branding it the tournament's low point so far. The Socceroos, though, are through to the last 32 — and that, according to Hrustic, is the only scoreline that matters.
"You can't make everyone happy," the winger said, per The Guardian, pushing back on the noise with the kind of shrug that only works when your team is still in the competition. He has a point. World Cups are littered with sides that played beautiful football on the way out the door.
There is a version of this where Australia's approach is quietly smart. Paraguay are no pushover at this level, and a point secured without conceding — however grimly — keeps the Socceroos alive and in control of their own fate. The problem is that the manner of it has handed every critic a ready-made narrative heading into the knockout round.
That narrative now has a very specific test attached to it. Egypt and Mohamed Salah in the last 32 — a fixture Hrustic himself referenced, and one that will be confirmed via official FIFA scheduling.
Salah at a World Cup, finally at the peak of his powers in terms of tournament experience, is not the kind of opponent that rewards a low-block-and-hope approach — at least not without genuine defensive organisation behind it. Australia will need to be more than compact. They will need to be switched on for 90 minutes in a way that the Paraguay game, whatever its tactical logic, did not demand.
Hrustic and the Socceroos have earned the right to make that argument on the pitch. The stage is set. The audience is watching — and this time, they will want something to talk about for the right reasons.
Ajdin Hrustic, for one, does not look like a man who is losing sleep over the reviews.
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Sources: The Guardian. Fixture details to be verified against official FIFA/Football Australia scheduling before publication. This article is pending editor sign-off under the single-source manual-review exception.
Sky Sports — as reported by The Guardian — called it the worst match of the 2026 World Cup. Ajdin Hrustic called it a job done. Both things can be true — and now Australia have to go and stop Mohamed Salah.
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