“And I grabbed Milos Degenek as well to say, ‘Get in a huddle and tell the players to make sure that they know where we are, they’re winning 1-0, we have to win, we have to keep a clean sheet, we have to keep the concentration, we have to keep the focus’.”

The problem was none of Degenek’s teammates initially believed him, and some weren’t even listening.

“Once we scored, I ran over to Arnie and he told me, so I told the boys,” Degenek said. “The boys thought it was me psyching them up so we don’t lose, but it was actually me being serious - they’re winning, so we have to win.”

Added Meulensteen, with a grin: “Well, that’s the type of guy [Degenek] is. That’s unfortunate!”

Striker Mitchell Duke must have been zoned in, because he had no idea what was going on until he got to the mixed zone, and he was told who won by Australian media.

“No, we didn’t really [know] to be honest,” he said.

“Obviously, once we went 1-0 up it was on us to just close out the game. I actually didn’t know. I was just focusing on us and just making sure - as long as we won, we knew we were through and that’s all that mattered.”

Loading

Bailey Wright, who played the last 15 minutes as part of a five-man defence, had heard murmurs from the crowd that Tunisia had taken the lead while he was warming up.

“Arnie asked me to warm up when it was when it was 0-0. And then we had a few shouts that Tunisia were winning 1-0 so I wasn’t sure, maybe, if I’d get on all, or what would happen, or if we’d throw a few on and go win the game,” Wright said.

“Next minute, ‘Lecks’ worked his magic, scored, and I was already warming up ready to go. I knew Arnie had, in the back of his mind, that he was potentially going to change things and I saw that they were bringing on the big man [Andreas Cornelius] so I thought this could be an opportunity to get on and try and get into a bit of a wrestle at throw-ins, headers.”

From there it was a matter of holding on for dear life. With the bus officially parked, and the Danish needing two goals goal to advance, the Socceroos dug their heels in.

“I have to say, I’m so enormously proud of everybody in the way that they man-managed the game throughout the second half. Absolutely top-notch,” Meulensteen said.

“Goals do change games. But there’s always this momentum of three to five minutes after you score, you have to be really on your guard, which we really honed in to the players to make sure that they are ready, and [it] just doesn’t drop off just a little bit.

“They were so focused, they were so motivated, they knew what was at stake. I can’t be more proud of what they’ve achieved.”