Substitute Michael Beauchamp's own goal in stoppage time Saturday cancelled out the goal that veteran Tony Popovic thought had given Australia a win over Paraguay in his last international.

Popovic's header from a Mark Bresciano free kick in the 88th minute gave Australia a 1-0 lead after a long period of possession that produced five scoring chances.

But Paraguay got a lucky equalizer three minutes into injury time to make it 1-1 in a friendly international billed partly as a homecoming parade for Australia's World Cup Socceroos and partly as a send off for four retiring veterans.

Beauchamp, playing only his fourth international match, replaced Popovic and had only been on the field a minute before the own goal.

The Australians complained that the 25-year-old defender had been shoved and fouled by Oscar Cardozo.

``It was another dodgy decision in the last seconds _ I thought it was a foul, it would have been called a foul in South America _ and it cost us,'' Socceroos captain Lucas Neill said. ``It has taken some of the gloss off.''

Neill said Beauchamp was shattered. ``He's devastated _ it's going to haunt him for a while. But he'll learn from it.''

Paraguay coach Raul Amarilla said his young squad had done well to hold the attack-oriented Australians.

``I'm very happy, I can't deny,'' Amarilla said. ``I'm very satisfied because (we) played a very courageous and very good team. Australia played beautiful football.

``For some (Paraguayans), it was the first international game at this calibre. It was good for the future.''

The match marked the end of Paraguay captain Carlos Gamarra's 109-match international career.

Gamarra was replaced in the 64th minute and his departure changed the complexion of the match.

The Paraguay back four that had shut down Australia's opportunities in the opening hour became more susceptible.

Jason Culina drove a shot directly at Paraguay goalkeeper Justo Villar in the 78th and Vince Grella pushed a shot from the right edge of the area across the face of goal.

Another powerful Culina shot brushed the side netting.

Bresciano was off target with his free kicks in the first half but picked out unmarked Popovic from the left side two minutes from regulation time and the veteran defender did the rest.

Popovic left the field to rousing applause and was not even watching when Beauchamp headed Diego Gavilan's lofted speculator past goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer and into the back of his own net.

Schwarzer was an injury-time replacement for Zeljko Kalac, who along with Popovic and Tony Vidmar and midfielder Stan Lazaridis were playing their last matches for Australia.

It was the first home match since the World Cup for most of the players from the Socceroos squad that was knocked out on a last-minute penalty by eventual champion Italy in the second round at Germany 2006.

Australia plays Bahrain in an Asian Cup qualifier at Sydney on Wednesday.