The heat on Australian coach Frank Farina was turned down to simmer as the Olyroos grimly hung on for a 1-1 draw against Tunisia in their opening round Olympic soccer match in Crete.
With high-profile Europeans such as Gerard Houllier and former French World Cup star Manuel Amoros linked to the top Australian job, it is thought Farina needs a good Olympic result to shore up his position.
And it was good, at least for the first half.
After that the Australian attack went to sleep and the Tunisians were unlucky not to claim full points.
The second stanza turned into a major headache for the Australians, who were lucky not to go down as defender Jon McKain appeared to get an arm on the ball inside the box in the dying minutes.
To the relief of the Australians no penalty was awarded and they can head into Saturday's match against Serbia and Montenegro still realistically in the quarterfinal mix.
With the European side thrashed by Argentina 6-0 in another match, the Australians must fancy their chances.
"I think the teams didn't want to lose tonight and the result keeps things very much open," said Farina, who was disappointed the game had begun to slip away.
"We stopped playing and doing the things well that we were doing in the first half.
"We weren't pressurising the ball when it came in, we just seemed to be happy to get behind it rather than put pressure on the players.
"If you do that you are going to cause problems for yourself."
A goal to John Aloisi on the stroke of halftime gave Australia a 1-0 lead at the break in what was a tidy 45 minutes of football for the oft-criticised side.
Brilliant work by forward Ahmad Elrich set up the goal as the former Parramatta Power midfielder cut in a delightful ball from the left.\
Aloisi leapt above two Tunisian defenders to head home.
However possession dried up for the Australians in the second half and with a steady supply of ball the Tunisians pounced.
An accurate strike from the left was nicely parried by Olyroos keeper Eugen Galekovic, but the Australians failed to finish the clean-up job.
Swooping on the keeper's deflection, poised Tunisian midfielder Mejdi Traoui clipped the ball back in front of the goal and striker Ali Zitouni pounced ruthlessly to lock the match up at 1-1.
The French-influenced Africans dominated for large periods but couldn't crack the second goal thanks to solid central midfield defence by Adrian Madaschi and Craig Moore and some good keeping by Galekovic.
In other men's games this evening Greece and South Korea drew 2-2, while the clash between Mexico and Mali ended with a goalless stalemate.