Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Sydney: Australia defeated Greece 1-0 in an international friendly thanks to a late goal by Mathew Leckie at a rain-soaked ANZ Stadium on Saturday night.
The Socceross dominated the proceedings and created a host of good chances but it was not until the 93rd minute that the Australians broke the deadlock when Leckie (pictured, right) cut inside from the left and fired a powerful shot into the bottom corner to the excitement of some 40,000 fans.
Australia could, and possibly should, have had more goals but defender Trent Sainsbury hit the post two minutes earlier while Tim Cahill’s home header was disallowed after the assistant referee adjudged a corner by Alex Gersbach, who gained his first international cap when he came off the bench on 82 minutes, had gone out of play.
“We kept at it, we always said to be persistent and don’t give up until the last kick of the game,” skipper Mile Jedinak. “It’s nice to see we were able to get a reward for some really good stuff throughout the game.
“That’s what we’re going to face going forward. That’s the stuff we have to be patient with going forward and the one thing you can’t do is go away from the style of football you want to play when they are there to be got, you have to keep doing that.
“We maybe let them off the hook a couple of times with some of the finishing but in the end we got our reward with the goal.”
The win came fresh off the back of a strong display in their 2-1 friendly defeat to England at Sunderland with the Socceroos now heading to Melbourne for the second game of the Greece friendly series at Etihad Stadium on Tuesday.
The friendlies form part of the Ange-Postecoglou-led side’s preparations ahead of the resumption of the 2018 FIFA World Cup third qualifiers round in September.
Photo: AFP