Captain Mile Jedinak says the Socceroos couldn’t be in any better shape.
The Australians confront United Arab Emirates in Tuesday night’s semi-final to determine who meets South Korea in the Asian Cup final.
The Koreans downed Iraq 2-0 in Sydney on Monday night, securing a shot at their third cup – they won the initial two editions in 1956 and 1960.
The Socceroos enter their fixture against the Emirates before a sell-out 22,000-strong crowd in Newcastle high in confidence and with a full squad of players to choose from – a situation Jedinak says is ideal.
“We have got 22 fit players ready to go … there is nothing more you would want at this stage,” Jedinak said.
And coach Ange Postecoglou has full faith in all his charges, having lost defender Chris Herd to a tournament-ending Achilles injury.
The scenario is far removed from the World Cup in Brazil last year when Postecoglou’s squad was beset by injuries.
“The environment we have created is pretty much the same as the World Cup, it’s an environment designed to get the best out of our footballers,” Postecoglou said.
“The biggest difference for us is we have spent the last six months exposing as many players as we could to how tough international football is and also exposing them to how we want to play.
“Every player who is in this camp, I’m quite confident if I put them out there they’re able to deliver.”
South Korea will be waiting for the winner of the Socceroos versus UAE semi-final after making the final without conceding a goal in the tournament.
Goals in either half from Lee Jeong-Hyeop and Kim Young Gwon sealed the victory against Iraq and banished memories of their heartbreaking semi-final penalty shoot-out defeat to the Lions of Mesopotamia seven years ago.
Uli Stielike’s side have yet to concede a goal in 480 minutes of football in addition to winning all five of their games.
Both sets of fans played their part in creating a cracking atmosphere but the noisy Iraq contingent were stunned into silence when Lee Jeong-Hyeop opened the scoring in the 20th minute.
The striker rose unchallenged in a crowded box to nod home a beautifully flighted free-kick from left-back Kim Jin Su past the despairing Ahmed Ibrahim.
Iraq tried to work their way back into the game with young midfielder Ahmed Yaseen breaking clear only for South Korea enforcer Park Joo Ho to end his run with a cynical handball.
However, Japanese referee Ryiji Sato opted for a yellow card instead of a red and the resulting free kick was easily dealt with by the Korean defence.
Stielike’s side started the second half strongly with the exciting Son Heung Min seeing a shot on the run stopped well by Ibrahim and man of the match Nam Tae Hee firing over from the edge of the box.
But Ibrahim was beaten for a second time five minutes after the restart when defender Kim demonstrated great technique to drill a half-volley into the bottom right corner after the ball was chested down to his feet by Lee Jeonghyeop.
That setback injected some life into the Iraqis who to their credit battled manfully in search of an equaliser.
With evergreen skipper Younus Mahmood leading the line superbly they Korean defence were forced onto the back foot for large parts of the second period.
Mahmood went close with a header that drifted just wide and young winger Amjed Kalaf saw his shot deflect off a wall of red bodies but across the face of goal.
But with centre-half Kwak Taehwi marshalling the Korean back four superbly, Iraq began to run out of ideas as their memorable campaign came to end in front of a crowd of just under 37,000.
