Australia’s Mens and Womens teams couldn’t maintain their winning form on Tuesday night as the Socceroos went down to Greece and the Matildas drew with New Zealand.
Aaron Mooy was only one of three players who maintained their position in the starting eleven from Saturday night’s encounter with the 2004 European Champions, playing alongside Tom Rogic and Mark Milligan in Ange Postecoglou’s midfield trio.
Our marquee man played 72 minutes before being replaced by Apostolos Giannou as a sluggish start from the home side was punished by Petros Mantalos and a 60 metre wonder strike from Giannis Maniatis.
Trent Sainsbury pulled one back for the Socceroos but it wasn’t enough as the Greeks prevailed 2-1 in front of 33,622 fans at Etihad Stadium.
The Matildas were brought back to earth on Tuesday as they had to settle for a 1-1 draw with the Football Ferns.
City’s Lisa De Vanna found the back of the net to bring the Aussies level after Katie Bowen opened the scoring for the Kiwis in the 65’ minute.
Steph Catley and De Vanna were the only City players to maintain their position in the starting eleven from Saturday’s match in Ballarat as Laura Alleway picked up her first start of the series and Larissa Crummer was an unused sub.
The Matildas will continue their preparations for June’s Rio Olympic Games while the Socceroos will make the most of the European summer break before returning for the second phase of World Cup Qualifying against Iraq in September.