Mexico coach heaps praise on Socceroos

The Socceroos have gone from being written off to written up by the football world.

And Australia winger Mathew Leckie isn't surprised.

The Socceroos may not have won yet at the World Cup in Russia but they're winning plaudits with Mexico coach Juan Carlos Osorio the latest to lavish praise on the Australians.

"Personally, I have been favourably impressed by Australia," Osorio said.

"I profoundly admire Australia as a country, what they do in order to recover their players and how they compete honestly and transparently.

"In some cases they seem like rugby players playing football. They are gentlemanly, they don't go into personal fights, they fight every single ball with all they've got.

"Then, if we think about Leckie for example, they play a very appealing, attractive football.

"Not only to control a ball and the game but to attack on the wings. I think they are one of the great surprises of the cup."

Leckie welcomed the praise as justification of Australia's growing status in world football.

"We have definitely put in two really good performances that probably nobody would have expected," he said.

"Although we have only picked up a point, I think the performances deserved more."

Australia have lost 2-1 to France and drawn 1-1 with Denmark at the tournament in Russia.

"We were probably a write off before the tournament started," Leckie said.

"No one knew much about our team, especially the ones that aren't in our group because it's obviously not important to them.

"It's always nice to get praise from coaches or other teams to say that they're surprised how well we're playing.

"But we knew that we would be better than what everyone expected."