Footballer Apostolos Giannou wasted little time setting out to vindicate new Socceroos boss Graham Arnold’s decision to give him the opportunity to revive his international career and show that he can be part of the solution to the Socceroos’ goal scoring problems.Giannou became the first Socceroo to find the back of the net under Arnold’s reign, when he scored his maiden goal for his country in the 4-0 win over Kuwait on Tuesday morning.

Giannou’s goal came after just 20 minutes and it followed a Kuwaiti own goal, to give the Socceroos a 2-0 lead at half time following a half which they largely dominated peppering the Kuwaiti defence with crosses.

Giannou was the new face up forward flanked by familiar wingers Robbie Kruse and Matt Leckie, in a 4-3-3 formation. The Kuwaitis regrouped after the break putting the Socceroos under pressure until coach Arnold made several substitutions bringing on Daniel Azani and Awer Mabil as well as Thomas Deng. The subs invigorated Australia and once more they were able to put the Kuwaitis under pressure scoring twice in the latter part of the game through Rogic and Mabil, to run out comfortable winners against the lowly ranked Kuwaitis.

Giannou has scored previously in international matches, for the Greek U 21 side, however this was his first goal at senior international level, and his joy and perhaps relief, were plain to see in his enthusiastic celebration.

He showed a poacher’s instinct after a Kuwaiti defender failed to clear a Jackson Irvine cross from the right flank. Giannou pounced to steal the ball from under the defender’s nose and tucked the ball into the net from close range.

With Tommy Juric and Jamie MacLaren both competing for the central striker’s position, no doubt Giannou will be aware he’ll need to score a few more goals to bed down the central striker’s role in Graham Arnold’s Socceroos. But having scored the first goal in his career as a Socceroo should give him added confidence.

Coach Arnold commented post-match that he feels that “We still need the icing in the cake which is the finishing. The execution will come. The performance was promising but we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

Attention now turns to the Socceroo’s next two matches in November, which will be friendlies played on home soil against Republic of Korea and Lebanon. The latter game will be Tim Cahill’s Socceroos farewell.