Australia reach World Cup knockouts, Turkey beat USA

Australia booked their spot in the knockout rounds of the World Cup on Thursday after a cagey draw against Paraguay, who are set to qualify as a third-placed finisher, while Turkey beat USA 3-2, scoring the winner with virtually the last kick of the match.

Australia go into the knockout rounds for the third time in their seven World Cup appearances, after a stop-start game fraught with wayward tackles and poor finishing.

"I'd like to think that we dominated the game in a crucial World Cup qualifier with a very young squad in the third match, when everything's on the line, and the players showed composure, patience, quality, and resilience," Australia manager Tony Popovic told reporters.

"We’ll now go to Dallas and try and do something special. Overall we deserved it. We were very good today."

Paraguay, on four points, may have done enough to advance as one of the eight best-finishing, third-placed sides but the 2010 quarter-finalists will need to wait for other results in the final group matches.

"Well, the feeling I have is that that was not enough, that was not the result we were aiming for," said Paraguay coach Gustavo Alfaro.

"Now we have to wait, there is some uncertainty ... I'm very optimistic, however, and I think that we will go to the knockout stage and we will continue in the World Cup."

It was Australia who had most of the chances, with Cristian Volpato and Jackson Irvine forcing saves from the keeper and Jordan Bos twice going painfully close late in the game.

Paraguay were pedestrian and had their only real chance in the dying moments when a Mauricio Magalhaes strike was saved, with the talented Julio Enciso and his constant slaloming runs the only source of trouble for the Socceroos.

USA END WITH DEFEAT

In the other Group D match, Kaan Ayhan scored on almost the last kick of the match in the eighth minute of second-half stoppage time as Turkey stunned a makeshift US team 3-2 in Inglewood, California.

Ayhan was in front of the net to poke in the ball as the US scrambled to cover.

Sebastian Berhalter produced a goal and an assist for the US, who failed in a bid to win all three group matches at a World Cup for the first time. 

The result did not matter for either team. The US won their first two matches to advance, and they will face Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32, Turkey were eliminated after losing 2-0 to Australia and 1-0 to Paraguay despite taking a combined 62 shots.

"At the moment no one congratulated us for finishing first in our group," boss Mauricio Pochettino told reporters. "I congratulate the players, the staff and the fans to finish first in a very difficult group."

"Our objective was to finish first, and we finished first. I'm so positive and I'm happy. Your questions are a little bit weird.

"We are a much better team now than before. We qualified as number one and we went to the next round. I need to remind you that we won the group."