Perth Stadium was going wild, a flare was ripped among the Australian fans and the players were still smothering Aziz Behich near the corner flag after his stunning 90th minute winner, and then there was Popovic; emerging from celebrations of his own on the sidelines with eyes wide open and a look of sheer relief on his face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last minute winners don\u2019t keep any sweeter than that. For the previous 89 minutes Australia toiled and battled just to stay in the game. This was the ultimate smash and grab mission – in their own backyard, albeit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not that Popovic cared. While he acknowledged that Japan were the better side, you could barely wipe the smile off his face after the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe found it difficult to retain the ball,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI thought the biggest problem around the first half was nothing to do with the ball. We didn’t win the challenge, we didn’t win the second ball. They were a lot tougher than us in the first half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen you can keep winning the ball, you can keep your momentum going forward. We didn’t have a chance to retain the ball. When we went into our duels, we were pretty much second best in every challenge. We know there’s room to grow and room to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n