The Matildas went into Saturday's FIFA Women's World Cup quarter final clash with France as underdogs, but after a stellar run through the competition to date, the Australian side has cemented its place in the annals of the country's greatest sporting achievements.
As the match kicked off in Brisbane, fans crowded into Wheeler Place in a sea of green and gold to cheer on the home team, and Hunter export Emily van Egmond.
Among them, Fletcher supporter Leone Harvey had her hair in green and gold ribbons and aviator sunnies bearing the nation's flag.
The first half had several opportunities for the Matildas, but an impenetrable French defence left the Australians unable to capitalise as the first 45 minutes passed.
"I'd like to see them take it all home," Ms Harvey said. "But one match at a time."
Her daughter, Rose, is 12 and plays for the Newcastle Jets Academy. Seeing van Egmond up on the big screen was a special treat, her mum said.
"Emily is playing so well," she said. "We always go for the local girls."
Rumour had it that about 500 seats had been set out to accomodate the crowd that spilled into the courtyard outside Civic Theatre on Saturday night.
Fans clambered into higher terrain at the edges to catch a glimpse of the screen above countless heads all turned to the match.
Among them, French exchange student Flore Bachelier, who has been studying engineering at the Univeristy of Newcastle.
She admitted that, while she wasn't a die-hard follower of the game, she couldn't miss a chance to see her country's best player, Les Bleues skipper Wendi Renard.
After a month in the country, Flore has about five remaining on her exchange and said she was loving Newcastle life.
"The people are nice, the weather is lovely," she said. "It's very cool."
The score remained deadlocked at zero as the match went into extra time, but the Matildas grabbed victory 7-6 in a penalty shoot-out that went to 20 shots.
As the anticipation of the home side's potential to take out the whole competition builds to fever pitch, everything everywhere was Matildas at the weekend.
After a blistering 2-0 victory over Denmark on August 7, featuring an on-fire Caitlin Foord who bagged her first 2023 World Cup goal and the late return of the nation's all-time leading point scorer Sam Kerr on the bench, the Matildas went into Saturday's match with yet another ace up their sleeve.
Defender Ellie Carpenter's insight with a grasp of the opposition's language and her experience playing for Lyon since 2020 had been tipped earlier in the week as invaluable when facing Les Bleues head-to-head.
"Ellie will have a lot of insight," former Matilda Emily Gielnik told ACM recently.
FIFA Women's World Cup 2023: Matildas results so far ...
- Group stage, July 20 - Australia vs Ireland: 1-0 (Matildas win)
- Groups stage, July 27 - Australia vs Nigeria: 2-3 (Nigeria wins)
- Group stage, July 31 - Australia vs Canada: 4-0 (Matildas win)
- Round of 16, August 7 - Australia vs Denmark: 2-0 (Matildas win)
- Quarter-final, August 12 - Australia vs France: 0-0 (7-6 on penalties) (Matildas win)
