Ahead of the Socceroos' FIFA World Cup qualifying clashes with Iraq on Thursday night followed by a game in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday against UAE, head coach Ange Postecoglou says his side is ready for both challenges.
The Socceroos are entering final preparations for the game against Iraq in Perth, and despite the extremely high temperatures Australia are expected to battle through in Abu Dhabi, Postecoglou said they won't be holding anything back against Iraq.
โWe kind of pride ourselves on being already prepared for the challenges, then nothing is a surprise,โย Postecoglou said.
โWe've trialed this kind of scenario of playing in Australia and going into the Middle East a couple of days later.
"We know exactly what works, we know exactly how our players adapt.
โNothing is a surprise. We knew it was going to be hot. We know how this works, we know exactly.
โSo it won't be about conserving energy or players. We'll go hard at it tomorrow and hard at it on Tuesday [next week] because that's the work we've done over the last 18 months, to prepare for what's ahead."
The Australian coach said all 23 players arrived to the camp with full fitness, including Alex Gersbach who only arrived in Western Australia on Tuesday.
Postecoglou has said all the training so far has been focused on Iraq, but come the final whistle on Thursday night, their attention will quickly turn to facing the UAE.
โThe first three days of camp have been about tomorrow. After tomorrow it'll be about the next game,โ Postecoglou said.
