Jordan pull off epic Australian upset

Australia's Asian Cup title defence suffered a huge blow on Sunday when they were stunned 1-0 by Jordan in their worst ever start to the competition.

Graham Arnold's youthful side had confidently predicted victory in their Group B opener but they were undone by Anas Bani-Yaseen's powerful first-half header.

Australia, who had 76 percent of possession but only six shots on target, were thwarted by a brilliant double save from Jordan's Amir Shafi in the game's dying moments.

Arnold, who led Australia to the 2007 quarter-finals in his first stint as Socceroos boss, called the goal "sloppy" and rued a slow start at the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium.

"It was one of those days, a frustrating day when the ball just didn't seem to bounce," he said, adding: "If you're going to lose a game, it's better to lose your first game. It's a wake-up call... it's all about where we can improve. We'll get over it very quickly."

Jordan coach Vital Borkelmans, who said he targeted Australia's midfielders Massimo Luongo and Mark Milligan, and exploited the space left by their advancing backs, hailed his hard-running team.

"I told them today, 'God gave you something', and today they were playing for the people of Jordan," said Borkelmans. "They were running like they had three lungs," he added.

After the game, Australia's coach was forced to defend comments when asked if he had treated Jordan with "arrogance".

Graham Arnold had bullishly predicted victory for the Socceroos in their Group B opener, but he said his comments shouldn't be interpreted as lacking respect.

"That's a translation difference. It's not arrogance, it's belief," he told a press conference, when the issue was raised by Jordanian media. "It's not arrogance at all. Those words are used a lot in Australia and in Australia it's not considered arrogant."

Jordan's coach Vital Borkelmans, whose fit and well drilled players carried out his tactics to perfection, said Arnold's pre-match comments were unwise.

"It's very, very dangerous to talk like this," Borkelmans said. "I said many times to my players, guys, nobody knows. You saw it at the World Cup, big teams lost to small countries."

Chhetri goes past Messi

In the day's later match, India got their first win in the tournament after 55 barren years, defeating Thailand 4-1.

Captain and icon Sunil Chhetri scored a brace that saw him reach 67 international goals, taking him past Lionel Messi into second place overall in the list of active players with most international goals.

Messi has 65 strikes for Argentina, while Cristiano Ronaldo tops the list with 85 for Portugal.