'An incredibly proud moment': Craig Goodwin reacts to World Cup goal, laments result

Craig Goodwin was left with a bittersweet feeling after Australia suffered a 4-1 defeat to France in its opening match of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ at the Al Janoub Stadium on Wednesday morning.

Goodwin's second goal for his country fired the Socceroos into a surprise lead inside nine minutes after a wonderful low cross from Mathew Leckie.

However, Australia's elation was short-lived with France's quality eventually coming to the fore and largely dominated the rest of the contest, courtesy of Olivier Giroud's brace and goals from Adrien Rabiot and Kylian Mbappe.

Speaking to SBS after the match, the 30-year-old admitted he was thrilled to score at the FIFA World Cup but was disappointed following the result.

"An incredibly proud moment, obviously honoured to represent my country at the World Cup and to score is an amazing feeling," the Adelaide United winger said.

"But you know mixed feelings because we lost the game in the end."

At the precise moment Goodwin took his chance and saw the ball emphatically crash into the back of the net, he revealed it was a an incredible feeling.

"Pure elation," he continued. "You know scoring any goal is a joy and almost indescribable in feeling, but to score in the World Cup against the reigning World Cup champions is a moment I'll remember for the rest of my life.

"But for now it's still business, we've got two more games and we want to do the best we can and try and win those games."

Indeed, those games come against Tunisia on Saturday night (AEDT) and Denmark on Thursday morning (AEDT).

Goodwin stressed they will reflect on the game and identify areas for improvement as they quickly turn their attention to the clash against the North African outfit, who drew 0-0 against the Danes in the other Group D match.

"We regroup, we recover, we analyse the game on where we can do better," he said.

"But this is a really short turnaround and we have to prepare for the game against Tunisia look at where we can possibly hurt them and and do the best we can and it's again we have to go into with confidence.

"I think that first half we showed we can match it with them, but tactically perhaps we can do a little better in getting more pressure on the ball, but at the end of the day, it's that we have to prepare for the next game now."

FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ - Group D Matchday 2

Tunisia v Australia
Date: Saturday, 26 November 2022
Venue: Al Janoub Stadium, Al Wakrah
Kick-off: 9:00pm (AEDT)
Watch: LIVE and FREE on SBS and SBS On Demand

FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ - Group D Matchday 3

Australia v Denmark
Date: Thursday, 1 December 2022
Venue: Al Janoub Stadium, Al Wakrah
Kick-off: 2:00am (AEDT)
Watch: LIVE and FREE on SBS and SBS On Demand