Matildas face final hitout before France
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The Matildas maintain they don’t need a result against the Netherlands to build good vibrations ahead of the World Cup.
But a morale-booster in their friendly clash in Eindhoven on Sunday morning (AEST) certainly wouldn’t hurt.
Ante Milicic’s side has been hit by injuries in the past week, with experienced striker Kyah Simon heading home, key midfielder Elise Kellond-Knight unable to train with soreness and defender Laura Alleway missing with a sore foot.
The return to the fore of former coach Alen Stajcic this week, who left the job in traumatic fashion in January, can’t have helped squad morale.
Then there’s the fact that the Matildas were well beaten in their last outing, a 5-3 loss to reigning champions and world No.1 side USA.
A week out from the tournament opener with Italy, there’s more bad news for the Matildas than good, but Milicic is focusing on the latter.
After a 10-day hot weather training camp in Antalya, Milicic feels his team are in shape.
“I’m really happy with the way the girls have worked and I’m very comfortable in our processes,” he said.
“That’s where the confidence comes from, our preparation.
“(We’ve played) America away from home and now the Netherlands again, away from home.
“Two top 10 sides with the big crowd, they’re the kind of games that you want, that will put us in another good place moving forward to the Italy game.”
The send-off match for the Dutch has attracted superb support, with more than 30,000 tickets sold.
Milicic said he wanted to play the Netherlands as their “quality front three” will challenge his defence.
“We’ve worked a lot in our defensive shaping, our defensive transition,” he said.
“People will look at it from the outside, that they need a result for the confidence.
“Of course, we want a result and a good performance. Most important is that we just keep on building what we’re working on.”
The Netherlands, the world’s eighth-ranked team, boast world class players including Lieke Martens, Vivianne Miedema and Danielle van de Donk.
They have a full-strength side available while Australia will miss Kellond-Knight and Alleway.
Kellond-Knight walked laps of training on Saturday (AEST) and Alleway skipped the session completely.
Milicic will have the opportunity to return Steph Catley and Chloe Logarzo to the national team after injuries.
The match will be played at the home ground of PSV Eindhoven, a familiar club for many Australian male players and coaches.
Trent Sainsbury still calls the club home, while Jason Culina, Archie Thompson, Aziz Behich have done so previously.
Legendary Socceroos boss Guus Hiddink was a former PSV player and coach, while Bert van Marwijk, Australia’s coach at last year’s male World Cup, was recently an assistant here.
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