Graham Arnold hails ‘new golden generation’ as Australians celebrate reaching 2022 World Cup last 16 at 4am

Graham Arnold hailed Australia’s “new golden generation” after they sparked early-morning celebrations back home by qualifying for the last 16 of the World Cup.

Mathew Leckie’s brilliant solo goal saw Australia beat Denmark 1-0 and progress as runners-up from Group D behind France.

It is the first time Australia have qualified for the last 16 at the World Cup since 2006, when they had Premier League trio Mark Viduka, Harry Kewell and Tim Cahill in the squad.

Thousands of fans gathered to watch in the middle of the night in Australia and there were celebrations in the streets as the match finished at around 3am in Sydney and Melbourne.

“I’m just so proud and happy, this is what World Cups are for,” said Australia manager Arnold.

“When the Cricket World Cup is on, you don’t see Federation Square (in Melbourne) like it is and pubs like they are, or if it’s rugby union, rugby league or anything.

“The World Cup of football unites a nation and I’m just proud that we’ve been able to put smiles on people’s faces.

“It’s the first time ever that an Australian team has won two games at a World Cup in a row.

“Maybe we’re talking about a new golden generation now because we’ve been listening and hearing about the golden generation of 2006 that got four points and now we’ve got six, so maybe we’re talking about a new generation.

“There will be some hangovers and some joy with the Australian fans. It’s remarkable.”

While Leckie grabbed the winning goal, Arnold reserved praised for Stoke defender Harry Souttar, who recently recovered from a long-term knee injury.

“Harry has been out for a year with an ACL, he’s played three games before he came in,” said Arnold.

“There’s so much belief in that boy. I know his mentality is so strong. And I tell you what, if I was a Premier League club, I’d be banging on the door real quick, he’s that good.”

Australia were beaten 1-0 by Italy when they made the last 16 in 2006.

This time around they will face Argentina, Poland or Saudi Arabia in the quarter-finals and Leckie hopes they can go at least a step further.

“We’re all super stoked, everyone was buzzing (at full-time), screaming a lot of nonsense, so much emotion,” he said.

“But we want to dream big and the key when we came to this tournament we always said we want to get out of the group and now we’ve done that.

“But then Arnie (Arnold), the first thing he said was, ‘let’s go one more’.

“With my celebration you saw the emotion. The whole bench was there and I think I got slapped in the head about a hundred times.”

Denmark reached the Euro 2020 semi-finals last summer but head coach Kasper Hjulmand said they lacked quality after only managing to score one goal in three matches.

“We haven’t played with the tempo and the rhythm in our in our own game. I think we started pretty well tonight, with good positions. And then you see the structures just go out of the match,” he said.

“And it’s too emotional and too little quality, and it’s the only thing we shouldn’t do against Australia in a match like this, go in with big emotions and lots of fight, we have to play with quality.”