Their only avenue to goal,however,were crosses from wide areas,17 of which were delivered in the first half alone. Fortunately,one of them yielded the breakthrough in the 23rd minute through a slick move started and finished by Duke as the Socceroos turned defence into attack quickly.

Craig Goodwin,the scorer of Australia’s goal against France,provided the final pass from the left with a cross that was deflected into the ground but bounced up beautifully for Duke,who still had plenty of work to do to react within a split second,contort his body and get the right angle on his header. He nailed it,flicking the ball past Aymen Dahmen and into the bottom corner,and etching his name into history as the eighth Aussie to score at the World Cup.

From there it was a white-knuckle ride to the end,with a desperate block from Souttar denying Mohamed Drager’s 41st minute effort and Tunisian captain Youssef Msakni letting them off the hook by fluffing a terrific opportunity from close range.

Beyond those moments,though,the Socceroos’ rearguard largely held firm,making clear-cut chances hard to find for the Eagles of Carthage,even as they became scarce in the other direction,too - although Mathew Leckie could have made it 2-0 with 20 minutes to go had he connected with substitute Jamie Maclaren’s cutback.

All throughout,Souttar was putting out spotfires left,right and centre.

Surprisingly,Arnold made only one change to the side that lost 4-1 to France,with Fran Karacic coming in at right-back for the injured Nathaniel Atkinson - backing in the rest of his troops after saying they “ran out of legs” in their opening match. Despite being declared 95 per cent fit by Arnold,Ajdin Hrustic,their key creative midfielder,was named on the bench and came on in the second half for his first minutes at this World Cup;overall,the coach’s selections and tactics were totally vindicated,and his players executed the plan well.

The Tunisians also made only one change,swapping forward Anis Slemane for Naim Sliti,and contrary to Arnold’s predictions that they would play a 4-3-3,retained the back five they used in their 0-0 draw with Denmark - but clearly struggled to keep that same energy in this match.

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