One last chance remains for Australia’s bid to make it to the round of ‘16’ in the FIFA World Cup. The Socceroos are facing Peru at midnight (12AM, SBS and Optus Sport) in Sochi, having to play for a win and hope for the best in the other match of the group, where France will face Denmark at the Luzhniki stadium in their bid to seal first place of Group C.

However, even those two results may not be enough, as Australia also needs a necessary goal deficit in order to reach the next round. If, for example, Australia beats Peru by 1-0 and France claims victory over the Scandinavians by 4-3, it will be the Danes who will be celebrating, despite their loss. So Australia needs to win by a margin of more than two goals, otherwise (if it scores a narrow, one-goal, win) Denmark needs to suffer a heavy loss.

In the highly unlikely incident of both teams having the same points and same goal difference after the 90 minutes are over, as per FIFA regulations, the yellow cards each team has suffered come into account to assess who moves forward.

Right now, things are on a tightrope but still in the Socceroos’ favour, as they have only received three yellow cards, as opposed to the four seen by the Danes, who will be facing a much tougher opponent in the face of France, which means that there is a higher chance that this number will rise.

Van Marwijk’s men continue to remain optimistic in regards to their chances of qualifying from the group and one key factor that they base this optimism on is their fitness.

“Against Denmark in the last 20 (minutes), we had more energy and power than them, which is why if anyone was going to win the game, it was going to be us”, said Matthew Leckie, one of the best performers of the team, who highlighted the physical strains of participating in such a trying tournament.

“It’s difficult to back up three games. If I’m not mistaken, at the last World Cup the time between days was one shorter. I remember playing against Spain, it was tough and I was really tired. It will be really tough (against Peru) but we’re one of the fittest teams. If we’re feeling a bit sore then it would be nice to see how the opposition is feeling”.

One of the greater questions on everyone’s mind has come in regards to Andrew Nabbout’s dislocated shoulder. The striker will remain on the sidelines for the crucial match against the South American side, which forces Van Marwijk to choose a substitute. Considering what we’ve seen from the Dutch coach so far, the player most likely to replace Nabbout will be none other than Tom Juric, his ability to break the ball to the side toward either Leckie or Kruse being quite useful. However, no one could completely rule out a possible surprise with the use of Tim Cahill or, even possibly, Jamie McLaren.

And what of Daniel Arzani? The youngster showed no fear when appearing on the pitch against Denmark and in fact nearly scored a goal against Schmeichel. And it is this fearlessness and unpredictability that could end up paving the way towards the last ‘16’. There are slim chances of him actually finding a position within the starting line-up, however Van Marwijk will surely give the talented player another chance to show the world what he can do.

Australia’s chances are dim, but one thing’s for certain. The players are prepared to go out and give it their all to keep the dream alive. Looks like we’re in for a real nail-biter!