In an epic display of sportsmanship, Syria has failed to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

The Syrian national football team was up against Australia, against whom they drew 1:1 in the first leg of the game last Thursday.

Australia only needed a draw to qualify. The game went into extra time and ended 2:1, with Australia being mostly dominant throughout the match.

The opening goal was scored 6 minutes into the game by Syrian striker Omar Al Soma, who currently plays for Al Ahli in the Saudi Professional League, and is widely acknowledged as one of the most effective players in West Asia.

His playing style has led him to be nicknamed the "Syrian Ibrahimović".

Australia's Tim Cahill scored the equaliser in the 13th minute. 

Syrian winger Mahmoud Al-Mawas was shown a red card in the 94th minute.

The final and winning goal was scored, once again, by the 37-year-old skipper Tim Cahill in the second half of extra time (109th minute).

Australia entered the match as clear favourites, however, Syria proved in the first leg's 1-1 draw in Malaysia that they had enough firepower in attack to worry any opponent.

Ever since the civil war broke out in the country in 2011, Syria's football team have been banned from playing home games and were, in fact, one day away from being thrown out of the 2018 World Cup only for Malaysia to step in the last minute and host all of Syria's home games.

So far, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are the only two Arab teams to qualify for the highly-anticipated tournament.

This website, newsletter, and its content are copyright of Step Platform DMCC - 2021. All rights reserved.

Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any form is prohibited other than the following:

• You may print or download to a local hard disk extracts for your personal and non-commercial use only
• You may copy or forward the content to individual third parties for their personal use, but only if you acknowledge the website and newsletter as the source of the material

You may not, except with our express written permission, distribute or commercially exploit the content. Nor may you transmit it or store it in any other website or other form of electronic retrieval system.

You may not, except by clearly referencing or crediting the website and newsletter, share or distribute the content.