At a neutral venue at Craven Cottage, home of Fulham FC, Australia and La Tricolor played out a 0-0 draw.

But Colombia enjoyed virtually all of the fan support, with their supporters creating a boisterous and intimidating environment for their AFC opponents.

“I heard there’s a lot of Colombians living here,” Leckie, who started on the left wing, said.

“The South American countries, the crowd’s always loud. We were the away team on paper but it felt like an away game as well.”

Despite the raucous atmosphere the Socceroos matched Colombia and showed signs of improvement in coach Bert van Marwijk’s second game in charge.

“The feeling out on the pitch was definitely that it was a better performance [than Norway],” Leckie said.

“Not just because of the result but I think for this camp the most important thing we’ve worked on is how we want to set up defensively. I think we were much more compact and disciplined today.

“Towards the end we got a bit tired and obviously the game opened up a bit. But for most of the game we managed it really well and we’ve got three weeks in May so plenty of time to get even more sharpened up.

“Positive signs that we did it better and hopefully we can make it even better come the World Cup.”

Colombia did not rest their big guns with James Rodriguez, Radamel Falcao, David Ospina and Cristian Zapata all starting in London. Substitute Miguel Borja had a chance for a late winner from the penalty spot but Danny Vukovic saved his attempt.

“Colombia was a tough side, they were very aggressive,” Leckie conceded.

“We knew they would be. Very physical but we managed it pretty well for most of the game. They went a bit direct towards the end and that hurt us a bit.

“I guess in a sense when teams go more direct and with long balls we have to manage that a bit better and work on that. But when they tried to build and play through the middle we dealt with it really well.”