« It’s so emotional »

Author of Australia’s qualifying goal against Denmark (1-0), Mathew Leckie did not hide his joy at the idea of ​​playing in the round of 16 of the World Cup.

Mathew Leckie, author of the goal of the victory of Australia against Denmark (1-0): “It’s so many emotions. We want to dream big and we said when we arrived that we wanted to pass the first round. Now it’s done. There is now one more game. The most important thing now is to be ready. A lot of players are exhausted, but that’s exactly what was needed to get a result tonight.

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It was an intense match, we defended very well. […] It shows what team we are, those who start like those who come in, or even those who don’t play. We had no control over what happened in the other game (Tunisia-France), we had to win, we arrived with a good mentality to win, play our game and I think it’s deserved. Playing a World Cup was a dream when I was young. We hope to be an inspiration to young people. »

Graham Arnold, Australia coach, after qualifying for the round of 16, in a press conference: “I’m so proud of the players, of the commitment, of their fight. Denmark are a really good team with players who play in the big leagues. What I said to my players? No social networks until four or five in the morning, I know that the most important thing now is to recover, to sleep, to be sure to be ready for the next game.

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I’m so proud that we managed to put smiles on people’s faces, it’s the first time ever that an Australian team has won two games in a row at the World Cup. We may be talking about a new golden generation. We talked a lot about the golden generation of 2006 who scored four points, we scored six. »