Guus Hiddink’s Australia have finished their World Cup warm-up preparations with a less than impressive 3-1 win over Liechtenstein in Wednesday’s international friendly at the Ulmer Donaustadion in southern Germany.

The Socceroos dominated the match from the opening whistle, but managed to concede an early own-goal, and wasted a host of scoring opportunities in the first-half, needing late goals from Josh Kennedy and John Aloisi to seal victory.

Australia’s head coach Guus Hiddink made six changes to the side that started in last weekend's 1-1 international friendly draw with Holland, resting team captain Mark Viduka and substituting the former injury-doubt, Liverpool’s Harry Kewell, early the second half.

But, even with the win, Hiddink will be concerned about how the Australian defence managed to gift Liechtenstein an own goal in the eighth minute, after Blackburn’s Lucas Neill headed a seemingly innocuous free kick past a sprawling Zeljko Kalac into the back of his own net, with another blunder between defender Tony Popovic and his goalkeeper almost doubling the lead for Liechtenstein.

Australia recovered from their early set-back and equalised in the 19th minute when former Birmingham City midfielder Stan Lazaridis broke down the left wing and fired in a low cross that Basel midfielder Mile Sterjovski was able to poke past the Liechtenstein keeper Peter Jehle, but Liechtenstein held out to take .

Dynamo Dresden midfielder Joshua Kennedy, who was a surprise selection in Guus Hiddink’s squad, showed why his height could well be an advantage against Japan in the group stages of the World Cup when he climbed above two defenders to head a Brett Emerton cross into the net for Australia to take the lead in the 74th minute.

Another header gave Australia their final goal with Sterjovski providing the cross and Alaves striker John Aloisi heading into the corner for an exhaustive win for the Socceroos.

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