![\"Players](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/15fb129869bb08e735d95f06ee7a629d.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nFormer Socceroos coach Graham Arnold has been carried on the shoulders of his players like a hero after guiding Iraq to its first FIFA World Cup in 40 years.<\/p>\n
Iraq was the last country to qualify for the tournaments with a 2-1 win over Bolivia in the inter-confederation playoff.<\/p>\n
It is the first time Iraq has qualified for the World Cup since 1986, its only ever appearance.<\/p>\n
Ali Al Hamadi handed Iraq a 10th-minute lead at the Monterrey Stadium but Bolivia were level at the break through Moises Paniagua.<\/p>\n
Aymen Hussein steered home a second-half winner to seal Iraq’s place in the tournament, to be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n
When the full-time whistle blew, the Iraq players, coaches and fans went into delirium.<\/p>\n
Arnold, who guided the Socceroos to the last 16 of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, was lifted onto the shoulders of his players and chaired around the pitch.<\/p>\n
Carrying with the Iraq flag, Arnold greeted the huge Iraqi contingent of fans who had packed into the Monterrey Stadium in northern Mexico.<\/p>\n
“I must congratulate the players who played with real Iraqi mentality, fighting and putting their bodies on the line and that’s why we won the game,” Arnold said.<\/p>\n
“You’ve got to give full credit to Bolivia, because they played well. And it was just through the great defending from our players, who put their bodies on the line, as I said, and we defended the crosses really well. That’s why we won the game.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Iraq coach Graham Arnold (left) celebrates with players and coaching staff after qualifying for the FIFA World Cup. (Reuters: Raquel Cunha)<\/p>\n
Iraq will compete in group I at the June 11 to July 19 World Cup along with France, Norway and Senegal.<\/p>\n
Iraq, the ninth team from Asia to qualify, were quickly out of the blocks and Bolivia goalkeeper Guillermo Viscarra made a fingertip save to push Amir Al Ammari’s curling free kick onto his crossbar.<\/p>\n
But from the resultant corner, Al Hamadi, who plays for Luton Town in League One, got ahead of the Bolivia defence to head home the opener.<\/p>\n
Bolivia slowly recovered from the shock of the early setback and by the break were deservedly level.<\/p>\n
Their equaliser came when Ramiro Vaca’s forward pass, which looked initially to be a shot on goal, found Paniagua, who then had time to turn and slam home the ball from close range.<\/p>\n
Iraq went ahead again in the 53rd minute as substitute Marko Farji’s cross found Hussein, who reacted quickest and got ahead of his marker to steer it home.<\/p>\n
Mohanad Ali had a chance to score a third for Iraq and finish off the game near full-time, but squandered the opportunity.<\/p>\n
Bolivia forced several late corners as they desperately bid to take the game into extra time, but Iraq finished the fresher of the two sides.<\/p>\n
Reuters\/ABC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Socceroos coach Graham Arnold has been carried on the shoulders of his players like a hero after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5844,64,63,16135,218721,1076,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-578035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-abc-sport","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-fifa-world-cup","12":"tag-graham-arnold","13":"tag-iraq","14":"tag-sport","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}