Djite grabs late goal to draw level with Chile

The Qantas Young Socceroos secured its second successive draw on its South American tour, coming from behind to finish 1-1 with Chile at the La Florida Stadium in Santiago. Bruce Djite continued with his impressive tour, scoring Australia's goal.

The Qantas Young Socceroos secured its second successive draw on its South American tour, coming from behind to finish 1-1 with Chile at the La Florida Stadium in Santiago.

Australian Institute of Sport striker Bruce Djite continued with his impressive tour, netting the only goal for Australia with 20 minutes to go, after Chile had taken the lead early in the second half.

The match was played on a proper artificial pitch, due to the enormous amount of rain that has hit Santiago this week.

The first half was dominated by the home side, who controlled the tempo of the game, but to Australia-s credit they held and kept them scoreless at the break.

From the kick-off, Chile came out with strong intent and had several half chances in the opening 10 minutes.

On 14 minutes, Djite had a good chance to punish the Chilean keeper who was caught out of position, but the Aussie striker could not get control of the ball and the chance went begging.

Young Socceroos keeper Mitchell Langerak then pulled off a good save to deny Chile, while they also sent another chance wide from a good position.

However Chile-s dominance was rewarded in the 57th minute, when Australia allowed them to run through the middle and it was ended by a superb shot from the edge of the area into the top right hand corner.

The introduction of several players seemed to spark Australia, as one substitute Robbie Kruse elected to pass to Djite, which was intercepted and cleared, when he could well have shot himself.

Australia was rewarded for its efforts, when a Cameron Watson free kick to the back post, found its way to Djite after a number of deflections and he headed home. The goal was Djite-s third of the tour.

Chile had the best chance to win the match, but a header in the 88th minute, just cleared the crossbar.

The match ended on a sour note, with the over eager Chilean referee sending off Watson for a high tackle.

Qantas Young Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou had mixed feelings after the match, saying “The first half was a bit disappointing after the Argentina game and we lacked fluency and generally struggled.

“I was happy that we fought back after being a goal down however. This is important that we fight to get a result after going one goal down, so I think the players showed character in fighting back.”

Match Details

Chile 1 Australia 1 (Bruce Djite 71-)

Australian line-up: Mitchell Langerak (gk), Steve O-Dor, Peter Eleftherakis (Sebastian Ryall 76-), Matt Spiranovic, Shaun Ontong (c) (Cameron Watson 57-), James Downey (Tarek Elrich 76-), Nathan Burns, Evan Berger (Oliver Bozanic 57-), Chris Grossman, Bruce Djite, Troy Hearfield (Robbie Kruse 60-) Subs not used: Aleks Vrteski (gk), Ben Vidaic, Brad Porter Unavailable: Ryan McGowan

Cautions: O-Dor (22-), Spiranovic (66-), Elrich (78-) Expulsions: Watson (89-)

Australia will play Chile once again on Monday morning (Chile time) in its final match of the tour.