Costly missed chances could come back to haunt the Socceroos, but Saudi Arabia felt equally aggrieved after they were denied an injury-time winner in a dramatic scoreless draw in Melbourne.

The Socceroos have survived a late and dramatic scare in a goalless draw with Saudi Arabia in World Cup qualifying.After spurning a number of good chances in the second half, Saudi Arabia thought they found a winner deep into stoppage time through Sultan Al-Ghanam,

Australia and Saudi Arabia meet in Melbourne on Thursday night in a crucial World Cup qualification match. Both sides are level on five points in their group, with Australia holding a slightly better goal differential. ABC Sport will be live blogging the World Cup qualifier between Australia and Saudi Arabia from 7pm AEDT.

The top two teams in Group C secure direct qualification for the 2026 World Cup, while third and fourth place go into the next round of qualifying. It only magnifies the importance of Thursday night’s crunch clash with the Saudis at AAMI Park, then the away match against Bahrain four days later in Riffa.

Australia will hope the much-travelled Herve Renard will not wield his old magic on his return to the Saudi Arabia dugout when the teams clash in a crunch World Cup qualifier at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium on Thursday.

Australia and Saudi Arabia play a crucial World Cup qualifier in Melbourne on Thursday while Japan and South Korea can take a huge step towards North America in 2026 in the third round of Asian qualif