Socceroos captain Mathew Leckie bagged a brace and Aaron Mooy scored a bolt from outside the box to beat a frantic but disjointed Kuwait 3-0 in Australia’s opening World Cup qualifier.
In front of a hostile away crowd, Australia showed no signs of rust despite only playing one game since January as they surged at the hosts’ backline at the Al Kuwait Sports Club Stadium on Tuesday night.
It took just seven minutes for the Socceroos the break the deadlock with Leckie, captaining Australia after veteran Mark Milligan was sent home injured earlier in the week, leading by example. Playmaker Jackson Irvine’s low drive from just inside the 18-yard box bounced through a sea of legs, including Adam Taggart’s, to Leckie who poked the ball past Kuwait goalkeeper Sulaiman Abdulghafoor and into the bottom right corner.
In the 24th minute the Hull City midfielder had a hand in the Socceroos’ second goal as well. This time Irvine’s goal-bound header off Mooy’s corner found the Australia skipper in almost the same position, and Leckie turned and stabbed into the bottom right corner again to double the lead.
Irvine wasn’t finished there. For his third act he laid the ball to Mooy, who showed his pedigree from long-range to stretch Australia’s lead to 3-0. Rhyan Grant’s searching cross was parried by Abdulghafoor into the path of Irvine who nudged the ball to the waiting Mooy with the midfielder striking it sweetly into the top right corner in the 38th minute.
Australia sat back in the second half, content to hit the hosts on the counterattack, with Kuwait still searching for a way in. Captain Hussain Al-Musawi had a good chance in space at the back post in the 53rd minute, but his low drive hit the side netting.
Mathew Ryan’s first real test came in the 59th minute, with the Socceroos goalkeeper tipping Al-Musawi’s dipping shot over the bar. Youcer Nasser had an opportunity when Trent Sainsbury cleared awkwardly but Ryan parried his resulting shot past the front post.
Awer Mabil, who came on for Leckie in the 68th minute, had a chance after just four minutes on the pitch. Mooy lobbed over Kuwait’s Amer Almatoug Alfadhel to the onrushing winger, but Mabil smashed his shot into the side netting. Right on full-time, Mabil was again set loose by Mooy and found himself one-on-one with the Kuwait keeper. But Abdulghafoor managed to get a hand to the winger’s lob with a swarming defence giving him time to scramble back between the posts.
