CANBERRA: Australia trashed Nepal 5-0 at Canberra’s GIO Stadium after Jamie Maclaren hit hat-trick in the World Cup qualifier on Thursday.
Australia opened the scoring with a set-piece move on six minutes when Aaron Mooy found Craig Goodwin and his low drive couldn’t be contained before Maclaren fired in the blocked shot.
The second goal arrived when Aziz Behich crossed for Ryhan Grant who headed back across the face of goal and Maclaren to score from point-blank range on 19 minutes.
Scotsman Harry Souttar then made it three as the 198cm defender scored on debut after heading in a well-hit Goodwin corner.
It should have been 4-0 on the stroke of half-time when Mathew Leckie scored a deflection goal that was incorrectly ruled offside by the linesman.
Goodwin looked certain to score his first international goal in the second half but his back-post header was denied sharply by goalkeeper Kiran Chemjong.
Souttar celebrated a brace when he headed home on 59 minutes but the shot took a deflection and it officially went down as an own goal to Dinesh Rajbanshi.
Maclaren completed his hat-trick in the 90th minute after collecting the ball from Irvine’s chest inside the box and finishing sharply.
Nepal now face Jordan in Amman on Tuesday.
Australia has begun their road to Qatar 2022 with two strong wins and now face Taiwan away on Tuesday before players return to their clubs.
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