Sunderland's Bailey Wright helps Australia book World Cup spot following penalty shootout win

Sunderland defender Bailey Wright played the full 90 minutes to help Australia secure the final spot at this year's World Cup in Qatar thanks to a dramatic penalty shootout victory.

The Socceroos were held 0-0 by South American outfit Peru following 120 gruelling minutes, as Graham Arnold's side were denied three times in the last 10 minutes of normal time to win the contest.

Winning via a sudden death shootout at the Al Rayyan Stadium, Peru's Alex Valera missed his chance with the scores tied at 4-4 before midfielder Awer Mabil ensured Australia's progression to the finals.

Wright, 29, will hope to continue his place in the team leading up to the tournament later this year, insisting after the game that it feels just as good to prove some doubters wrong to reach football's elite sporting competition.

"It means a lot, personally, collectively and everyone who has played their part throughout this journey. It's been a long and hard journey to get there and people have wrote us off, I think we just risked every occasion that come our way and it just shows the spirit of this group," began the Sunderland defender.

"Everyone who comes in here you can feel the atmosphere, you can feel what it means to everyone and you can see that out there today. We deserve that and the country deserves it to all those ones who wrote us off, put that in your pipe and smoke it, nothing feels better than shutting people up."

The Socceroos now join Group D at the month-long tournament with holders France, Denmark and Tunisia. The finals begin on November 21 and end just before Christmas on December 21.