SCHWARZER POSITIVE

The Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer has said that he is extremely positive that the nation will have a good World Cup qualifying campaign, which will resume in March. He is extremely confident despite the recent defeat at the hands of Romania in a friendly match. Romania managed to open the scoring in the match through a goal from Tănase in the 35th minute.

However, Australia proved that they are one of the better footballing nations in the world by stunning the Europeans with two goals on either side of the break. Wilkshire's penalty just before half-time gave them the equaliser, while Cornthwaite scored in the 54th minute to give them the lead.

There was a real belief amongst the Australians that they will be able to maintain their unbeaten run, which has now extended to six matches in all competitions. However, there were stunned by two quick goals from the Romanians. Stancu equalised for Romania in the 80th minute, while Torje scored after just 4 min to give them the lead. It stayed the way to the end of the match, thus handing the Australians their first defeat in six matches. Despite this, the Fulham goalkeeper has expressed his confidence that they will be able to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

"It was a disappointing result and the way the game played out, particularly in the second half, was a little bit disappointing. But you've got to take the goods out of it and there were a lot of lessons learned. I think there were some individual performances that were pretty decent and that's going to put us in good stead against Oman. He's doing himself a lot of good by coming in and scoring and doing a good job," said the 40-year-old, who is likely to play in his last World Cup.