Nestory Irankunda stars as Socceroos draw final World Cup warm-up against Switzerland

England has held on for a 1-0 win against New Zealand and that’s where we’ll leave things.

Thank you for spending your mornings with us as the Socceroos claimed a 1-1 draw with Switzerland.

Next time we do this thing, it’ll be the real deal and the FIFA World Cup.

Look forward to seeing you all then!

I agree Phillip.

Any negativity towards Volpato is classic tall poppy syndrome from Australia I reckon.

Yes he might’ve caught a few offside with all the Italy stuff, but he’s here now and wants to play for Australia and is so talented.

The Socceroos have rarely had players like this that they can bring off the bench to change a game. He’ll have a big part to play in this tournament.

The Socceroos and Switzerland weren’t the only teams in action this morning.

Here’s a look at some of the other results from around their World Cup contemporaries.

England is currently in action against New Zealand and leads 1-0 courtesy of a Harry Kane goal.

Scotland is currently holding a 4-0 lead over Bolivia as well with goals to Lawrence Shankland, Scott McTominay and a brace to Che Adams.

We’ve also got Brazil in action later, they face Egypt.

It was a tough first half for Cristian Volpato on debut this morning, but it wasn’t really his fault.

I think he’ll be a pretty good energy piece off the bench for the Socceroos at this World Cup.

Tony Popovic looks a pretty happy man after escaping with a 1-1 draw there.

“It’s nice that we got a result in the end, we’re playing a very, very strong nation,” he says.

“Good response in the second half and the young boys acquitted of themselves well.

“He [Yengi] found it a bit difficult in the first half, our front three playing for the first time together were a bit disjointed.

“Conditions were warm, so it’s a good experience for us. We just had to get through that first half, but that second half we had a good passage of play where we looked good for 20 minutes.

“This all plays a part, the experience for the players, it’s nice not to have injuries after that game.

“I’m happy and looking forward to next week.”

Tete Yengi enjoyed a strong debut in that one, and here’s what he had to say after full-time.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” he says on scoring.

“You work hard for moments like this and I’m happy to help the team today. You can only dream of moments like this.

“I’m so grateful for the opportunity and hopefully we can go into the World Cup on a positive.

“The first half they made it very hard for us, we had to do a lot of defending, but I felt like we grew into the game.

“It was an intense game against top quality players, this is what it’s going to be like at the World Cup.

“I think we’re ready, it’s a positive result, so let’s see what happens.”

Here’s a look at some of the key stats out of this one. Switzerland’s numbers in the red, Socceroos in the yellow.

The Swiss also had 696 passes at 91 per cent accuracy to the Socceroos’ 421 at 85 per cent.

Another match where it was a tale of two halves for the Socceroos as we end level in San Diego.

They were so flat in the first half and there was very little semblance of any attacking play, as we’ve seen before.

However, after what must’ve been a half-time rev-up from Tony Popovic, the Socceroos came out like a team possessed after the break.

Nestory Irankunda is in the thick of all of Australia’s attacking plays before Tete Yengi found himself a debut goal.

Switzerland managed to regain control of the game after Yengi’s equaliser, but the Socceroos were able to avoid falling to a fifth straight defeat on US soil.

In the end, a decent hit-out for the Socceroos, their last before next week’s World Cup opener against Turkiye.

They were certainly much more pro-active with their passing in that second half, a far cry from the negative play and back-passing of the first half.

Most importantly for both sides, they have gotten through unscathed injury-wise.

Mo Touré has what looks like a late break, but he loses possession and then fouls his opponent.

The Aussie striker frustrated, but that was a poor foul, and that should wrap things up here.

A lovely ball from Noah Okafor puts Cedric Itten into the box, but Jason Geria chops it off.

The Swiss go again but Itten again puts his header over the crossbar.

Just the three minutes of added time again, as we did in the first half.

Can either side find a late winner?

Mo Touré comes so close to scoring there!

A lovely ball over the top of Switzerland’s defence from Jackson Irvine finds the on-rushing Touré, but Swiss keeper Gregor Kobel is awake to the danger and is able to snap the ball up off Touré’s toes in the nick of time.

Touré was so close to rounding the keeper and putting the ball into the empty net there.

The Socceroos are pinned into their own defensive third right now as the Swiss turn up the heat.

Miro Muheim has been very bright off the left side since coming on for Switzerland.

Australia holding up well though … for now.

Noah Okafar is put into the book after a high boot collects Jacob Italiano.

Meanwhile, the Socceroos have made two more changes as well as we head into the final few minutes of this one.

Milos Degenek replaces Harry Souttar, while Cam Devlin comes on for Kai Trewin.

Switzerland continuing to shift its line-up around in this second half.

Skipper Granit Xhaka, Manuel Akanji and Remo Freuler come off for Noah Okafor, Eray Cömert and Christian Fassnacht.

Switzerland should be level!

Miro Muheim puts in a brilliant cross and his fellow sub Cedric Itten has a free header, but sends it well over the crossbar.

He just had to test the keeper there, poor finish.

A good chance for the Socceroos is extinguished as Connor Metcalfe has a poor touch on the ball looking for contact.

Some good combination play between Metcalfe and Mo Touré.

Switzerland ringing in the changes during the break here.

Denis Zakaria, Miro Muheim, Cedric Itten, Aurele Amenda and Ardon Jashari replace Zeki Amdouni, Nico Elvedi, Johan Manzambi, Silvan Widmer and Ricardo Rodriguez.

Australia too making a host of changes.

Jackson Irvine, Jordy Bos, Matthew Leckie and Mo Touré are on for Nestory Irankunda, Paul Okon-Engstler, Aziz Behich and Tete Yengi.

Nestory Irankunda is shown a yellow card after kicking the ball into Granit Xhaka.

Xhaka was laying on the turf after being fouled and Irankunda hammered the ball into his backside.

There’s a brief scuffle that ensues as Xhaka is not too pleased with the Aussie youngster, but it’s broken up and we head into another hydration break.