In 2019 he came on in the final minute of extra time to take a penalty in the shootout that helped Aston Villa reach the Championship final<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to constantly do it in a game if you\u2019re not getting penalties,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s the familiarity of it and understanding what makes you feel in that moment [that] you have the right solution in that moment, you\u2019ve got the tools to be able to deal with whatever\u2019s being thrown at you.\u201d<\/p>\n Alessandro Circati is just 22, and is seen as a leader of this Socceroos team despite his age. He has both scored and missed penalties in his short career, but has never taken a penalty in green and gold.<\/p>\n Much can happen in 120 minutes before a shootout lineup is confirmed, but Circati said he would volunteer if it came down to it. \u201cIf I\u2019m there, I\u2019d be confident enough to take it as I\u2019m quite confident in that situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Every weekday<\/p>\n Sign up to Football Daily<\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s penalty lineup will largely be a decision for Tony Popovic and his staff, including Jedinak, but Circati said the final decision will come down to the player. \u201cThey\u2019ll give a guideline, but then obviously, whoever is \u2013 in the moment \u2013 willing to take the penalty and take it, will step up.\u201d<\/p>\n Jedinak says he is happy to provide advice to players who ask for it, and his approach was simple. \u201cTaking the moment, controlling the situation with the ball, trying not to focus on anything else, purely: ball, me and where I was going to put it. [Then] clean contact, strong enough that if the goalkeeper goes the right way that it\u2019s going to beat him.\u201d<\/p>\n Australia have a series of likely penalty takers including Ajdin Hrustic \u2013 scorer in the 2022 Europa League final \u2013 and Nestory Irankunda, who stepped up against Palestine in 2024 to score his first senior international goal. Awer Mabil, like Hrustic, scored in the Socceroos\u2019 2022 shootout victory over Peru made famous by \u201cgrey Wiggle\u201d Andrew Redmayne. Connor Metcalfe and Jordy Bos expressed a degree of confidence this week<\/a> and striker Mo Tour\u00e9 also takes penalties, though missed one for Norwich in April<\/a>.<\/p>\n Given the drama of the shootout, there is considerable focus given to the skill as the World Cup reaches the knockout stage. Jedinak, however, warns it can be overthought. \u201cIt\u2019s not straightforward,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think it\u2019s that\u2019s complex either, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Socceroos turn their minds to the possibility of a penalty shootout against Egypt, they have a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-521046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782311733_174_500.jpg\")
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