Live: Heartbreaking penalty shootout ends Australia’s World Cup dreams

I mean, what’s the point of these player of the match awards at this stage.

Mo Salah did desperately little in that game.

Following from Cristiano Ronaldo getting the player of the match award after a pretty torrid display yesterday, it’s pretty clear that whoever is selecting these things is having a nap during the match and just picking a name they recognise.

Here’s the full breakdown of the match.

Here’s Mo Salah.

“It’s history,” the Egypt captain says.

“I told the boys before the game that this is the biggest stage you can play on.

“Enjoy it and don’t let the pressure get to you.

“I’m glad that we managed to win the game, bad luck for them.

“I’m happy that we wrote history today.”

The post-match interview asks him about the panenka penalty he took.

I have a slight issue with this, because I need a panenka to be far more of a delicate chip than what Salah pulled out, but that’s just me being pedantic.

“If somebody was going to do it, it would be me,” he says.

“I am more experienced than others and I wanted to give them confidence. I decided last minute, I had to do it.”

I have a big, big problem with taking Pat Beach off.

He had just made a match-saving stop in normal time to keep the Socceroos in the game.

Heading into a shootout, which is as much about mentality as skill, the Socceroos stopper had confidence to spare.

He’s been brilliant all tournament.

And Mat Ryan hasn’t done a single thing except be snubbed.

His confidence will be low.

Beach’s was high.

And there’s no way of knowing if Beach would have done better in the shootout than Ryan had done but he would not have done any worse.

Ryan never came close to any of the spot kicks.

Tony Popovic is speaking now.

“It’s tough,” he says.

“I think we showed the world that Australian football is strong.

“[It’s] a wonderful group and I’m devastated that we can’t progress.”

He says that it’s “not the moment” to think about how to pick the players up that missed a penalty, only saying that he was “extremely proud”.

Now the big question, Mat Ryan.

“I think that was always an option for us and then you have to see how the game progresses,” he says.

Essentially he says that they had a spare sub so used it to put Ryan on.

That seems to be a bizarre reason.

A tearful Jackson Irvine is speaking on SBS.

“Listen, congratulations to Egypt, huge victory for them, historic,” he says.

“We took it all the way to the end.

“It’s a cruel way to end.”

He says that he hopes that the players who missed a penalty will get plenty of support, saying it takes a lot of courage to take a penalty.

“We’ve said from the beginning that we’re a champion team. We’re a unit, we do everything together.

“We win together and lose together.

“They’ve been immense through the whole tournament.

“It’s just the beginning for a lot of these guys.”

Former Scotland midfielder Scott Brown has heavily criticised the penalty takers for the Socceroos, asking why the two centre-backs were chosen to take the spot kicks.

“Australia put two centre-backs on penalties,” he says on the BBC.

“You want to see your strikers go and lead the team and hit the back of the net.

“Touré has been on fire for Norwich this season, scoring nine goals.

“Go and hit the back of the net instead of putting an 18-year-old on.”

Chris Sutton, the former England forward, has also chipped in, saying: “There will be questions about why two centre-backs are stepping up to take the penalties for Australia.”

The winger is taking the defeat particularly hard. Several Egyptian players have been over to Mabil to hug him, as have numerous Socceroos.

The Australian supporters haven’t moved. The Egyptian fans are dancing.

Now the Socceroos are walking over to their fans. The heartbreak can be felt from 100 metres away.

Jordy Bos has also come back onto the field, on crutches.

I imagine these are very different from the tears the Australians are currently shedding.

There can be no more deflating way to exit a tournament.

Harry Souttar and Lucas Herrington have been two of Australia’s best this entire tournament.

There may be criticism over why they were down to take penalties, but I sincerely doubt this was a spur of the moment decision made by Popovic just before the shootout.

But Mat Ryan coming on?

That was a bizarre call.

Hossam Abdelmaguid sends Mat Ryan the wrong way and the Socceroos are out.

If this Mat Ryan sub is to pay off, it needs to be now.

The youngest man in this squad slides his penalty onto the bar.

No blame for the youngster.

Egypt one successful kick away from the last 16.

The 18-year-old in the biggest moment of his life.

He scores it!

A fearsome run-up and then a dink down the middle.

Egypt back in front 3-2.

Here we go. Mohammed Salah, the king of Egypt.

There is a rippled of anticipation around the stadium amidst the nerves.