Australia's top teenagers proved too good for Qatar at Shenzhen's Youth Football Training Base Centre Stadium on Saturday, coming from behind to win 3-1 with goals from Alex Badolato, Dean Bosnjak and Daniel Bennie.
Qatar had gone ahead in the 18th minute through Mohamed Gouda, but Australia hit back swiftly with Josh Inserra providing the cutback for his Melbourne Victory teammate Alex Badolato to finish.
Dean Bosnjak, one of the five changes to Trevor Morgan's team's line-up following their opening 5-1 win over the Kyrgyz Republic, put them ahead after the break with a header from a Tiago Quintal's corner.
Then after an attacking triple-substitution just after the hour mark saw Adam Bugarija, Musa Toure and 18-year-old Bennie introduced by Morgan, it was the English-based QPR winger Bennie who soon thrashed home a blistering 69th minute shot for his second goal of the tournament.
"Very happy to be on the scoresheet, the boys were up for this one," said Macarthur's impressive Bosnjak.
"Qatar were a decent team and have some quality players. It was a very physical game, and we just proved to be better than them today."
Talking of their resilience in fighting from a goal down, he added: "We work well, we stick together. If we make mistake, we back each other and know what we can do."
With China winning the other group A match on Saturday 5-2 against the Kyrgyz Republic, both the hosts and Australia ensured they'll be in the quarter-finals.
All that's to be decided is who tops the group when the two teams meet in the final group match on Tuesday.
By qualifying for the last-eight, the Young Socceroos have matched the achievement of the side that made the quarters in the last U-20 Asian Cup tournament.
That team got beaten in a quarter-final penalty shootout by Uzbekistan, who went on to win the event on home soil.
If Morgan's side win their last-eight match, it will guarantee they'll be one of the four semi-finalists who'll go to the U-20 World Cup in Chile in September and October. Australia haven't played in that event since 2013.
