Australia qualifies for World Cup after edging Peru

AL RAYYAN, Qatar: Australia qualified for a fifth straight World Cup after a 5-4 penalty shootout win over Peru in their intercontinental playoff on Monday. The teams failed to score in regulation and extra time at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, and goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne, sent on as a substitute in the dying seconds of extra time, proved to be the star for Australia by saving the last penalty from Alex Valera. “I’m not a hero,” Redmayne said.

“I just played my role like everyone else did tonight. I’m not going to take credit for this. The boys ran out there for 120 minutes.

It’s a team effort.” “Taking off established No. 1 Mat Ryan for Redmayne, who had made just two previous international appearances, was a big call from coach Graham Arnold. Redmayne’s unconventional dancing and jumping along the goal-line as the Peru players stepped up, however, worked.

“Andrew Redmayne is a very good penalty saver,” an emotional Arnold said. “Why are we making that change? To add that bit of uncertainty to their brains, get into the mental aspect of Peru. That’s the reason why.” Australia qualified the hard way: Third behind Saudi Arabia and Japan in the final round of Asian qualifying and then defeating the United Arab Emirates in the Asian playoff last week.

“I’m just so proud of the players,” Arnold added. “Really, no one knows what these boys have been through to get here. It was so hard, the whole campaign.

The way they’ve stuck at it. The way they’ve committed themselves to it … incredible. Twenty World Cup qualifiers, 16 away from home.

It’s been tough, but we did it.” The dramatic end followed two hours of little action. Australia finished regulation as the only team creating chances. Ajdin Hrustic, who scored the winning goal