TOM ROGIC admitted there was delight amid the despair as Australia toppled out of the World Cup in Russia.
The Celtic midfielder was in superb form, but could not prevent Peru winning 2-0 in Sochi to send the Aussies home.
They made their exit without a win and with only a solitary point to show for their efforts, picked up in the draw with Denmark to finish bottom of Group C. They also lost 2-1 to France in their opening game in the tournament.
However, an upbeat Rogic said: “It’s been a great experience, it’s been great to be here.
“The feeling right now is disappointment. I thought we’ve made great progress as a team. Ultimately, our goal was to progress to the next round and we weren’t able to do that.
“I’m sure we’ll all learn from it, we’ll be better from the experience.
“It’s been great to work with the management and stuff, it feels like they added to what we had built on and they took us a bit further.
“Unfortunately, we just fell short at the end. I enjoyed working with manager Bert van Marwijk. He’s a great person and has great experience.”
Rogic admitted a lack of finishing against the Peruvians proved costly.
He said: “We probably had a few chances in the first-half that we didn’t capitalise on.
“We’re finding it a little bit difficult to score goals and then we concede – it as a great strike – but that was their only attack in the first-half and the next half was crucial and they got it. It kind of killed the game off.”
Rogic denied fatigue was an issue for the Socceroos in the humidity of Sochi.
He added: “I don’t think so. We’re all used to playing a lot of our games for our clubs.”
The Hoops playmaker will now have a break before joining up with his Parkhead team-mates in time for the season’s kick-off.
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