11 December 2019

Bumper Canberra crowd sees Socceroos beat Nepal 5-0

| Lachlan Roberts
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Jamie Maclaren

Jamie Maclaren celebrates his hat-trick goal in the dying minutes of the match. Photos: Photox.

A bumper crowd packed GIO Stadium on Thursday night to watch the Socceroos soundly beat Nepal 5-0 in their 2020 World Cup qualifier.

Thanks to a hat-trick from Jamie Maclaren, and the dominance of the six-foot-four defender Harry Souttar on set pieces, the Socceroos dispatched the Asian minnows with ease in front of 18,563 fans.

Local football fans witnessed two pieces of history: Maclaren became the first Socceroo to score a hat-trick in two years and debutant Souttar’s 24th-minute header saw the 20-year-old become the fastest goal for a Socceroos debutant since Aaron Mooy in December 2012.

Despite Nepal being starved of possession, every touch of the football was roared with excitement by a strong Nepalese supporter base in the stadium.

Local photographer Ben Appleton from Photox was on site to capture all the action.

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Stephen Saunders4:31 pm 11 Oct 19

Stunning crowd, for a nothing fixture at high prices on a cold night. But I guess FFA will continue with the existing policy that they’d rather keep stuffing extra A-league teams into Anywhere But Canberra.

Capital Retro6:44 pm 11 Oct 19

Thank goodness for that.

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