Steph Catley declared the Matildas would show the world what they are capable of in Tokyo when they host Vietnam at McDonald Jones Stadium on Friday night in an Olympic qualifier.
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The match is the opening leg of a home-and-away qualifier between world No.7 ranked Australia and world No.32 ranked Vietnam. The return leg will be played in Vietnam on Wednesday with the winner on aggregate securing passage to the Tokyo Olympics in July.
Catley said the Matildas gained plenty of confidence from topping their group in the group stage of the Asian Football Confederation women's Olympic qualification tournament held in Sydney last month.
They were unbeaten in three matches and plan to take first blood tonight in the two-match series.
"It's definitely exciting," Catley said. "Most of our players are starting to come into some really good form, which a few were happening around the World Cup.
"But I feel like we're at a different level now and we're really ready to step it up and show the world what we can do when we get to the Olympics."
The Matildas exited last year's World Cup in France in the round of 16 but Catley said there was now more understanding in the squad.
"We've been together longer and under [coach] Ante [Milicic] longer, so I think that just helps, playing together more and getting regular game time," she said.
"I think together we're clicking a bit better and everything's just a little sharper and our tactics and knowledge and everything is coming together more for sure."
The Matildas are the overwhelming favourites going into the match but Milicic remained wary of Vietnam and warned patience would be key to success.
"[Vietnam] have generally been a four-four-two block and they've had the same coach now for a while," Milicic said.
"We saw in the last game where they played South Korea they went to a more back five so we expect them to defend deep, have a lot of players behind the ball, look to quickly counter in transition. They've got a lot of speed on the flanks as well, quite good technically, so we're expecting a difficult game and one thing we know is the women's game has improved very much.
"There's a ticket to the Olympics on the line, so I'm sure it's going to be a game where they're going to put their front foot forward but for us it's all about ourselves. We believe that if we play to our maximum and we stay focused and we stay patient, we believe there's enough quality there to get a good result."
Kick-off is at 6.30pm.
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