Brisbane: A first half goal from Cadiz winger Awer Mabil was enough to give Australia a 1-0 win over New Zealand in a World Cup warm-up match in Brisbaneyesterday. The match was the first leg of a two-game series to celebrate 100 years since Australia played their first international, a 3-1 loss to New Zealand in 1922.

The second game will be played in Auckland on Sunday. It was also the last match on Australian soil before the Socceroos head to Qatar for the World Cup, where they will open their campaign against France on November 22. Australia will take some concerns to Qatar, after struggling to put away a side ranked well below them and who failed to qualify for the World Cup.

“I’m far from satisfied with that to be honest,” Australian midfielder Jackson Irvine said. “There’s a lot of things we could have done better. We managed to get a win, but there are a lot of aspects of the game that we can do better. “But at the end of the day, a win’s a win and it’s a landmark day for the national team.”

The All Whites shaded the Australians in both possession and completed passes, and had more shots on target than the Socceroos. Their lack of a cutting edge up front proved the difference — while Australia had 12 shots on goal, only three of those were on target. One of them was Mabil’s 35th minute strike.–Agencies

Published in The Daily National Courier, September, 24 2022

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