Greek Australian players, Apostolos Giannou and Dimitri Petratos have been called by coach Graham Arnold to the Socceroos squad that will face Nepal and Chinese Taipei for the qualifiers of the World Cup.
The game with Nepal is this Thursday in Canberra and the away game with Chinese Taipei will take place next Tuesday.
The Socceroos commenced camp in Canberra on Monday. On day one of camp 15 of Graham Arnold’s 23 players for the October FIFA window participated in a light training session at Deakin Stadium before interacting with over 750 fans in a range of activities at the venue.
Giannou: nice to be back and in good psychology
Attacker, Apostolos Giannou was the first player to arrive in camp, and after scoring a goal in his AEK Larnaca’s league win on Friday, arrived in Canberra in goalscoring touch.
“I haven’t been back (to Australia) in a while (so) when I landed here I realised how much I actually miss being home,” Giannou said, to the FFA’s media unit.
“It’s a big plus for me to get in quick and to try and sort out my body and the time change so we can be ready to do what we have to do on Thursday (against Nepal) and in the next game (against Chinese Taipei).”
“It is always good to score and obviously as a striker you always want to have touch with the net. It is what we try to work on as the Socceroos also”, the Greek Australian player said.
Petratos replaces Luongo
Dimitri Petratos, of Newcastle Jets was called yesterday to the national team in order to replace the Massimo Luongo, who was injured in his game on the weekend with his English team Sheffield Wednesday
Socceroos Head Coach, Graham Arnold, said that “Massimo (Luongo) pulled up sore after coming off in last night’s game and due to the short turnaround between now and Thursday’s match, combined with the long-haul flight from Europe, we have decided not to take any risks with him and will bring Dimitri (Petratos) in.”
