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Australia will take confidence into Jordan, Iraq games - Neill

Australia captain Lucas Neill is remaining calm about the country's World Cup qualification chances.

The Socceroos were denied an historic win over Japan in Saitama on Tuesday when Keisuke Honda converted from the penalty spot to cancel out Tommy Oar's 81st minute opener to force a 1-1 draw.

The draw allowed the Blue Samurai to become the first team to progress to the finals in Brazil in 2014 but left Neill and his teammates with some work to do ahead of next week's meeting with Jordan in Melbourne and the following Tuesday's clash with Iraq in Sydney.

"Mathematically a win here and a win against Jordan, and we'd have been through," Neill said.

"We go on. We believe, and we keep believing. We've got two home games now, and I don't think there'll be the mistakes we made against Oman (in a 2-2 draw in March).

"Now is our time. We have to take the belief and confidence out of this game, the same energy and commitment and do the business now."

Holger Osieck's side remains third on the Group B table but trail second-placed Oman by two points, however, they do have a game in hand. Jordan lay fourth on the same amount of points as the Socceroos with Iraq a further two behind.

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Andrew Slevison
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Andrew Slevison

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