After winning 3-0 on Tuesday night in Tajikistan, Socceroo midfielder Mark Milligan says the Australians wanted to put on a better showing following their opening World Cup qualifier against Kyrgyzstan.
In June, a 2-1 win away in Bishkek in their opening FIFA World Cup 2018 Russia™ Qualifier on what was a poor surface resulted in a slender victory.
But Milligan, who opened the scoring in Dushanbe and had another influential game, said this second away game in qualification was more impressive.
Cahill brace helps Socceroos see off Tajikistan
“These teams seem to grow another leg at home and in front of a fantastic crowd here, but we wanted to make sure that our performance matched the result tonight,” the Bani Yas midfielder told Fox Sports.
“And I think we did that. And for the most part we played a lot of good football.
“Like last week [against Bangladesh] we wanted to have good movement in that front third and really move the ball and make teams work for it.
"But credit to them they kept coming at us.”
And Milligan joked about his scruffy opener on 57 minutes that broke the Tajiks' resistance.
“Yes, I’ve scored a few scrappy ones in my career. But we spoke about it before the game. Staying disciplined on set pieces and a few balls that fall in that area and I was lucky it fell down.
“We worked hard for that first goal and obviously the game opened up after that. And Timmy [Cahill] doing what he does with two class finishes.
“But tonight was another step forward in terms of the performance and the result.”