Australia, Socceroos dare to dream of deep run

“Anything’s possible. Croatia went to the final of the last World Cup. Anything’s possible. It’s football.

“The sky is the limit in football. Leicester City won the Premier League four, five years ago,” said defender Milos Degenek.

On face value, it seems like a completely ridiculous question. But after claiming their first top-10 scalp on soccer’s biggest stage, and reaching the round of 16 for just the second time in the nation’s history ... why not ask it, just to see how it sounds out loud?

“In the end, these beautiful football stories are the ones that are written with these situations, in these moments, and it’s these things that define a certain generation, or define you as a person - what happens now.”

Degenek and his teammates were totally delirious as they walked off the pitch at the Al Janoub Stadium, the venue where they have banked back-to-back wins over Tunisia and Denmark that have cemented them all as Australian sporting immortals.

Milos Degenek celebrates Australia’s victory over Denmark to reach the round of 16 at the World Cup. Credit:Getty Images

After knocking off the Danes 1-0, and dipping into energy reserves that they didn’t know they even had, they are now just four more wins away from lifting the World Cup trophy. If they play like this, no team in the world will want to face them.

Can they do it? Almost certainly not - especially given how exhausted they all looked at half-time, let alone the final whistle. But did anyone think they’d get anywhere close to where they are right now?

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