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Substitute Ahmad Elrich scored with his first touch to give Australia a flattering 2-1 win over Iraq in a football international at the Sydney Olympic Stadium on Saturday. Right-winger Elrich, who came on with 18 minutes left, raced on to crossfield pass from Josip Skoko to beat Iraqi goalkeeper Sarmad Rasheed and put Australia in front for the only time in the match.
Up until that stage Iraq, already out of contention for next year's World Cup finals, had harried the Australian defence into many errors and could have been two-up before Elrich's winning strike.
Striker Mohammad Nasir, who gave the Iraqis a shock lead after 11 minutes, almost grabbed a second when Hawar Mohamed put him in on goal in the 52nd minute but he fired wide of the left upright with the goal at his mercy.
Hawar capitalised on another defensive mix-up with 25 minutes left but Middlesbrough goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer beat out his volley to save Australia's blushes.
Coach Frank Farina made a double substitution in the 72nd minute to stir some spark into his attack bringing off Everton midfielder Tim Cahill and Blackburn Rovers' winger Brett Emerton for Elrich and midfielder Jason Culina.
Within a minute Australia were in the lead when Skoko found Elrich with a perfectly-weighted pass and he easily beat Rasheed much to the relief on the home fans.
It was a worrying performance by Australia who are gearing up for the Confederations Cup finals in Germany in June ahead of their World Cup qualifying.
Iraq, cheered on by thousands of flag-waving expats in the 30,258 crowd, were lively with Hawar and Nasir constant attacking threats with skipper and Ahmad Kadhim steady at the back of the defence.
Australia were rocked by a goal against the run of play in the 11th minute from striker Mohammad Nasir.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005

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