Australia to play Ecuador in football friendly

Australia's national football team, the Socceroos, will play fellow World Cup qualifiers Ecuador in an international friendly in London in March.

The friendly clash, which is the first meeting between the two countries at full international level, will be played at 'The Den' in south-east London March 5, reports Xinhua.

It is one of Australia's final warm-up matches before the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, providing an ideal opportunity for Australian coach Ange Postecoglou to test his team against South American side before the Socceroos take on Chile in its opening match.

"We're excited to have secured the match against Ecuador, which offers us a good test against South American opposition leading into the World Cup," Postecoglou said.

Ecuador is currently ranked 23rd in the FIFA World Rankings.

"This is also the last match we will play before we get together in May for our final World Cup preparations so it's important that we can build on the first positive steps we took in the match against Costa Rica late last year," Postecoglou added.