{"id":2031,"date":"2021-06-12T14:19:58","date_gmt":"2021-06-12T14:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?p=2031"},"modified":"2021-07-07T14:38:02","modified_gmt":"2021-07-07T14:38:02","slug":"australia-ease-past-10-man-nepal-to-secure-world-cup-qualifying-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?p=2031","title":{"rendered":"Australia ease past 10-man Nepal to secure World Cup qualifying progress"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Socceroos have progressed smoothly into the third round of qualifiers for the World Cup, guaranteeing top spot in Group B with a 3-0 win over Nepal.<\/p>\n

First-half goals from Mathew Leckie and Fran Karacic had Graham Arnold\u2019s side sitting comfortably in Kuwait, with Nepal\u2019s Rohit Chand sent off just before half-time. Martin Boyle\u2019s close-range finish close to the hour mark sealed a 3-0 win.<\/p>\n

With seven wins from seven games,\u00a0Australia\u00a0are through to the next round of qualification regardless of the result of their fixture against Jordan on Wednesday morning. The victory also stretched the Socceroos\u2019 winning streak away from home to six \u2013 a run not accomplished since the 1960s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most pleasing aspect was the amount of chances we created,\u201d Arnold, whose side had 28 shots with 12 on target, said. \u201cYou have to give credit to Nepal, they fought and fought and fought. They didn\u2019t stop running and fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came here to do a job and haven\u2019t finished yet,\u201d the head coach added. \u201cWe\u2019ve played seven games, [secured] 21 points and we\u2019re striving to finish this off with eight wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once again, Arnold rotated his squad for the contest, with Mitch Duke and Harry Souttar the only players to retain their starting role from the side that\u00a0downed Taiwan 5-1\u00a0on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Sydney FC goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne was handed his first action of the campaign, while Melbourne City\u2019s Connor Metcalfe made his first international start. The Socceroos struck early when Aziz Behich picked out Leckie with a ball from the left that the 30-year-old powered home with a header in the sixth minute.<\/p>\n

Ranked 171st in the world, the Nepalese offered little in the way of attacking threat but, labelled \u201cheroes\u201d by their coach after the game, produced a dogged defensive display.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, continuing to press his case to become Australia\u2019s long-term right-back, Karacic netted his maiden international goal, turning in a Leckie cutback to make it 2-0 in the 38th minute.<\/p>\n

Moments before halftime, Nepal were reduced to 10 men after defender Chand was adjudged to have unfairly brought Boyle down from behind as the attacker broke in on goal.<\/p>\n

After squandering two chances, Boyle made it 3-0 in the 57th minute when he poked home from an inch-perfect pass from his Hibernian teammate Jackson Irvine. It was almost 4-0 just two minutes later, but Leckie\u2019s flicked on header from an Ajdin Hrustic corner rebounded off the post and back into play.<\/p>\n

Source: The Guardian<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s Martin Boyle scores the third goal against Nepal in Kuwait City.<\/span>\u00a0Photograph: Jaber Abdulkhaleg\/AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Socceroos have progressed smoothly into the third round of qualifiers for the World Cup,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34,4,42],"tags":[44],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nep.jpg",620,372,false],"thumbnail":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nep-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nep-300x180.jpg",300,180,true],"medium_large":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nep.jpg",620,372,false],"large":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nep.jpg",620,372,false],"1536x1536":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nep.jpg",620,372,false],"2048x2048":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nep.jpg",620,372,false],"enternews-featured":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nep.jpg",620,372,false],"enternews-medium":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nep.jpg",620,372,false],"enternews-thumbnail":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nep.jpg",480,288,false]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?author=1"},"category_info":"Sports<\/a> Stories<\/a> World<\/a>","tag_info":"World","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2031"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2036,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions\/2036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}