SYDNEY, Aug. 6 (silubaba) -- Australia coach Tony Gustavsson said Sunday that having the right mindset is key for the Matildas to face off against Denmark in the round of 16 at the FIFA Women's World Cup.
"It's about putting the right player in the right position with the right mindset. And we've got that right against Canada. And doing the same against Denmark is going to be key," Gustavsson told reporters at a pre-match conference.
"Not looking at the Canada game as a final because it was just the start of something. So this is the start of a playoff. We're not going to the end of something. We're going to the start of something. And that mindset is key for us," said the coach.
Looking back on their group stage matches, Gustavsson heaped praise on his team, who he said had "been phenomenal in terms of living in the moment right in front of them."
"You could see clearly in their performance against Canada. It wasn't even a mindset to take one game at a time. It was to take one run, one tackle, one pass at a time. And I think that's the mindset you need to have in a tournament," said Gustavsson.
The coach pointed out that the Matildas don't play to prove anyone wrong or play for external reasons, but instead focus on themselves.
"These players have also proven that whenever you play a game, that is a do-or-die game, that is back against the wall," he noted. "They just focus on themselves and their performance and know if we perform as good as we can do, we know we can beat anyone. The World Cup has also shown that if you don't do it, you can lose against anyone."
As for Denmark, Gustavsson described the performance of their European opposition as "very impressed."
"They're extremely organized. Their work rate is extreme. They work for each other. You can see it's a team that plays for each other and they're a good pressing team that works really hard on defense, really good on the break," said Gustavsson.
He noted that Denmark has many players at top clubs in Europe and most of them play in teams that play a very passing-oriented, attacking style of football.
"We need to be extremely humble and realize that we need to focus in every single second of that game tomorrow and be as solid defensively as we were against Canada, because they have threats, central, right, and left, and in very different ways," he said.
"It's going to be a very tough game and we need to bring our A-game," he added. ■
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