Round of 16
The Socceroos have set-up a mouth-watering round of 16 clash with the world's third-ranked side Argentina on Sunday morning at 6am (AEDT), after the latter shored up top spot in Group C with a 2-0 victory over Poland in their final group match.
Despite the Argentines eventually steadying their shaky start to the tournament with convincing wins over both Mexico and Poland, their shock first round loss to Australia's AFC affiliates Saudi Arabia proved that anything is possible when it comes to a World Cup.
However, it will take some doing for Australia to get past goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez and a defence spearheaded by Nicolas Otamendi in the round of 16, while the Aussies in turn will need to be at their best defensively to combat the South Americans' attacking exploits of a certain Lionel Messi, Angel di Maria and Julian Alvarez to name a few.
Having already gone further into the tournament than most would have expected, Australia will need to defy the odds yet again to eliminate one of the heavy favourites leading up to the tournament.
Quarter-finals
The winner out of Argentina and Australia will take on either Group A winners the Netherlands or Group B runners-up USA in the tournament's final eight.
If the Aussies do prevail over Lionel Messi's Argentina, they will face Japan, Croatia, Brazil or Korea Republic in the Semi -finals.
The road to the 2022 FIFA World Cup final.
