Special Edition: Arnie makes history on epic day of World Cup play-offs

If you look closely, you might recognise the man standing in front of Graham Arnold.

That’s Ali Abbas, former Sydney FC star turned Arnold’s trusted translator, one of several familiar faces in Arnold’s coaching staff that also include his assistant at the Socceroos, Rene Muelensteen, and former Socceroos goalkeeper Zeljko Kalac.

It rams home just how much pride we, as Australian football fans, should have in this achievement by Arnold and his coaching staff, who took over with Iraq at a low ebb late in the qualification process last year.

That’s not to take anything away from the Iraqi players, who thoroughly deserved their victory today, showing a rugged determination that is the type of stuff Arnold absolutely loves to see from his players.

“I got to give so much thanks to the players, their work ethic, they showed the real Iraqi mentality of fighting and putting their bodies on the line, that’s why we won the game,“ Arnold said in his post-match interview on FIFA+.

As for where this ranks among great achievements by Australian coaches, that can be a debate for another day, but there’s no doubt it is right up there with the very best.

For now, soak in the sensational imagery we’ve got in this piece filed right on full-time by my co-founder David Weiner, who first interviewed Arnold back when he was coach of the Central Coast Mariners.

What a journey he’s been on since then!

Mamma mia, here we go again!

I’d love to take credit for that line but it was written by Tony Harper in this piece in which Tony gathered all the calm and measured feedback from Italy’s media following their loss to Bosnia & Herzegovina yesterday.

Just kidding, the media and just about everyone else in Italy are absolutely losing it - and really, can you blame them?

These are the four-time World Cup champions we’re talking about, and now this is the third World Cup in a row they’ve failed to qualify for.

To frame it another way, the Socceroos won more games at the last World Cup than Italy will have won in the last five.

It’s extraordinary stuff, and there is no shielding the players or coach Gennaro Gattuso from what’s coming their way - and they know it.

“It hurts because we needed it for ourselves, for our families. For all of Italy and our movement, it’s a hard blow to swallow,” Gattuso said.

Azzurri defender Leonardo Spinazzola summed it up best, though.

“I still can’t believe we went out like this, after a game with 10 men,” he said.

“We fought our way to penalties, we could have scored three or four goals, and it’s truly a great disappointment for everyone. Italian children will see another World Cup without Italy.

“It’s sad to see the young people cry. There’s no point in talking, the disappointment is truly enormous. Was it the last chance for any of us? For me, definitely, it’s a shame for all of Italy.”

If you want to know the details of the game, including how Italy held on with 10 men for most of the match before succumbing in a horror penalty shootout, you can check out the match report here, and here is how the world is reacting.

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Finally we have an answer to this question, with Turkiye locked in as the Socceroos’ opponent in Vancouver later this year.

Turkiye gained that spot after they edged Kosovo 1-0 in a tense game this morning, held at an intimate venue in Pristina, the Kosovo capital, which was heaving for much of the match.

Managed by Italian legend Vincenzo Montella, the Turkish players - including superstars such as Real Madrid’s Arda Guler and Juventus’ Kenan Yildiz - held strong, and most importantly, held on after scoring early in the second half.

The celebrations from the Turkish fans and players after full-time were brilliant to see, and a reminder of how rare it is for Turkiye to make it through to the World Cup - incredibly this is just the third time it’s happened, and the first since they made the semi-finals in 2002.

So what can Australia expect from Turkiye when the sides face off on June 14 (AEDT)?

David Weiner has done your homework for you with this informative piece below - and to be honest, it has me a bit worried.

There was plenty of drama in the other European qualifiers, with Sweden winning a five-goal thriller against Poland, and Czechia securing their spot at the World Cup after a penalty shootout against Denmark.

The Danes twice came back from a goal down to force the game to extra time, but after the deadlock couldn’t be broken, it went to penalties - and that’s when things got ugly for Denmark.

They missed three of their spot kicks, while Czechia scored three of theirs, helping the home side secure qualification for their first World Cup appearance in 20 years.

Meanwhile former Chelsea and Brighton manager Graham Potter is the toast of Swedish football after helping the Swedes earn a 3-2 win over Poland.

Sweden’s World Cup hopes looked dead and buried when Potter took over a few months ago, but he’s engineered a remarkable turnaround for a team that, given the talent at their disposal - including Arsenal’s Viktor Gyokeres, who scored the winner this morning - should never have been in that position in the first place.

Here’s how it all unfolded in our live blog this morning, which feels like a lifetime ago!

About an hour after those games wrapped up, one of the biggest countries in Africa by both land mass and population was thrown into ecstatic celebrations after DR Congo became the second-last team to qualify for this year’s World Cup.

They did it the hard way, first by making it through the African qualification play-offs last year where they relied on a stoppage time goal and penalty shootout to get through, and then this morning when a single goal in extra-time was enough to help them beat Jamaica.

This global feast of football has almost made us forget that the Socceroos were in action less than 24 hours ago.

We published a few more pieces of content on Australia’s national team since this morning’s newsletter, and you can check out our full range of coverage from last night’s brilliant 5-1 win over Curacao below.

ANALYSIS: The ‘beautiful thing’ about the three names that bailed the Socceroos out against Curacao

THE COACH: Popa hails player ‘extraordinary’ and Irankunda’s key change

THE SUPERSTAR: Irankunda explains incredible celebration as he steals Socceroos show

HE’S BACK, BABY! On a night Socceroos trio lit up Melbourne, a beautiful 1,103-day first stood out for two reasons