Australia top Group D

Australia has booked a seeded spot at next year's Asian Cup finals with an authoritative win over an inexperienced Bahrain side at Sydney's Aussie Stadium.

A near full-strength Australian squad needed a win to ensure top spot in the group, and achieved just that thanks to two goals in seven first-half minutes from John Aloisi and Marco Bresciano.

Australia now go into next July's tournament in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam with a seeding for the upcoming draw while Bahrain could still make it through as one of the 12 qualifiers if they beat Kuwait next month.

The Socceroos made five changes to the side which faced Paraguay in Brisbane on Saturday while Bahrain, as expected, fielded a youthful side, all of whom are eligible for the Gulf state's Olympic squad.

None of the Bahrain players had featured in Australia's 3-1 win in Manama in February and with so many new faces, the visitors surprised the hosts with the best of the early chances.

In the sixth minute, Ismael Abdulatif dispossessed Michael Beauchamp, but found Mark Schwarzer's chest with the resultant shot.

After both Bresciano and Scott Chipperfield had failed to trouble keeper Mohamed Jaafer with headers, Aloisi nabbed the first goal 17 minutes in. Tim Cahill laid off to Bresciano, who fed Aloisi. The Alaves striker powered through the defence, and slotted home his 25th international goal.

Undeterred, Bahrain surged forward and Mahmoud Abbas prompted an athletic parry from Schwarzer after breaking clear down the right.

But soon after it was 2-0, Bresciano spectacularly breaking an international goal drought which extended back to the Socceroos' 1-0 win over Uruguay in November 2005.

The Palermo midfielder met Mile Sterjovski's powerful cross with what was close to a bicycle kick, rifling the ball into the back of the net.

Aloisi then thought he had a second, but was ruled offside after he headed home yet another Sterjovski cross.

Bahrain's defence tightened as the half wore on, and Australia's only other decent chance, a long effort from Jason Culina close to half-time, was deflected away.

Cahill then failed to make the most of Bresciano's excellent 50th-minute cross, heading over from close range.

Bahrain were under siege, but led by the stubborn efforts of Ebrahim Al Meshkhas, the visitors held firm.

They were helped by some poor finishing from Chipperfield as well as Sterjovski's bad luck after he hit the crossbar from an angle on the hour mark.

Bahrain worked hard on the counter-attack and Al Meshkhas almost latched onto a through ball, while he also had a free-kick which he put high and wide of Schwarzer's goal.

Abbas had a late chance to reduce the gap, but pushed his angled shot across the goalmouth from the left.

The Socceroos seemed to lose their way late in the match, spurning several promising attacking moves, and the game was sapped of much of its rhythm. But the home side had done enough to secure a coveted seeded spot for their inaugural Asian Cup campaign.

Australia 2 (Aloisi 16, Bresciano 24)

Bahrain 0

Crowd: 36,606 @ Aussie Stadium

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