Australia’s Jackson Irvine celebrates after scoring their first goal at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium, during their Asian Play-off, in this file photo. Pic: Mohammed Farag
Doha: Australia have the chance to progress to a fifth straight FIFA World Cup should they defeat Peru on Tuesday and Mathew Leckie wants to do all he can to make sure he will be on the plane to Qatar later this year.
The Socceroos will take on Peru at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium in a winner-takes-all match for a spot in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Before facing Peru, the Socceroos had to battle hard against the UAE midweek, with Jackson Irvine and Ajdin Hrustic netting goals in the second half to send Australia to a second-successive inter-continental play-off game.
However, despite featuring nearly the entire match against Al Abyad, Mathew Leckie knows that his team-mates still have a vast amount of improvement in their game leading into the crucial tie against la Blanquirroja.
“I think in every game, there’s always things you can work on and do better so we reviewed the game, we saw the good things we’ve done, and some things we need to sort of fix up a little bit,” Leckie told Socceroos.com.au.
“No team ever has a perfect game, but next game is a one off if we win, we go to the World Cup, so I’m sure every single player will be giving it their all.”
Despite failing to automatically qualify for the World Cup, Leckie stressed just how hard it is to secure results in tough conditions away from home.
“It will definitely be rewarding, just based on the fact that once you’ve been here or participated in a World Cup qualification, you understand how tough it is.
Peru stand in their way and will be stiff competition but the Socceroos come into the clash confident after securing a friendly win over Jordan and progression out of AFC Qualifying by defeating UAE. Having acclimated to Qatar and finding some form, Leckie was buoyed by how the squad had come together ahead of the “second half” of the play-off qualification process against la Blanquirroja in a one off at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium.
“It’s important to be playing well going into these windows and to have this momentum physically, fitness-wise and of course you want your best available team out there.
“So I think the fact that we’re all back at this time, it’s crucial and this is the crunch time.
“We knew that these two games coming into camp we have to win both to go to the World Cup, so it’s panned out well (having everyone back) and just in general you always want all the players you can possibly have (available).”
