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The Matildas face world number 13 Denmark on Monday night (8.30pm AEST) in the World Cup Round of 16.
Australia, ranked tenth in the world, are still sweating on the fitness of captain Sam Kerr, who suffered a calf problem two days before their opening clash of the tournament against the Republic of Ireland.
Kerr did not feature in the group stage at all, and while she was listed on the bench against Canada she did not warm up or take to the field – with the Matildas firing on all cylinders in a 4-0 win without the Chelsea striker.
She has been heavily limited in training this week, and watched from the sidelines as her teammates trained on Sunday, though she did some work on an exercise bike.
But after touching down in Sydney on the weekend ahead of the match at Stadium Australia, Kerr told 9News: “I’m really excited.
“I will play.”
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Footage from Sunday’s training session was captured by a helicopter flying overhead,
Coach Tony Gustavsson said: “You need to respect that there are people out there trying to be creative and get insight to things and want to follow the team in every sense they can.
“I also hope that the people that potentially capture something show respect to the team and to the fans because I think our fans probably don’t want to have anything revealed that can hurt our performance for tomorrow and whoever captured that, I hope respect our will and the fans’ will in that sense.
“It does say a lot about the big interest in the team and what’s happening in the country.”
Asked about Kerr’s fitness, Gustavsson added: “We had a nice moment as a team yesterday to see her back with the boots on and touching the ball and be with the team in training.
“It was a very good feeling for her and a very good feeling for the players and the teammates and a very good feeling for me. Today she was off feet … she’s also a player we’ll talk about tonight, about how many minutes is suitable.”
Win against Denmark and Australia could potentially face world number five France in the quarterfinals before a possible clash with England in the semi-finals – two teams Australia has beaten this year, with the win over France coming just one week before the World Cup kicked off.
The match is scheduled to kick off at 8.30pm AEST.
If scores are level after the 90 minutes of regular time, it will then go to extra time – two additional periods of 15 minutes each.
If scores are still level, a penalty shootout would take place.
