South Korea coach Juergen Klinsmann expects a "battle" against Australia as he attempts to best Socceroos counterpart Graham Arnold and mastermind progression into the Asian Cup semi-finals.
Klinsmann's charges kept their tournament alive with a dramatic win on penalties over Roberto Mancini's Saudi Arabia in the round of 16, locking in a quarter-final against Australia.
The Socceroos will take on South Korea at the Al Janoub Stadium in Doha on Friday evening (Saturday 2.30am AEDT).
Klinsmann and striker Cho Gue-sung dismissed concerns over South Korea having more than two days' less recovery than their counterparts.
"Rest days are what they are. You accept it, you move on. We are ready," Klinsmann said.
"We are ready for this huge game and we are very hungry. We want to go through.
"And if you want to go through in the knockout phases of a big tournament, you have to suffer. You have to be ready to suffer, you have to deal with pain, because you are banged up from the last game.
"That's normal. It's normal. And the players play this way at their club teams. Many of them play in Europe every three or four days. So it's no problem.
"It will be a 50-50 match, it will be a hard-fought match. We are ready for the battle. We battled through 120 minutes against Saudi Arabia and we will go and battle through whatever it will takes against Australia."
Arnold responded: "of course we'll be ready for the battle."
The former Germany and USA manager Klinsmann has faced plenty of criticism over his team's results and playing style in South Korea, especially amid a scratchy group stage.
"I'm not stressed about it personally, I want them (the players) to experience what it would mean to go through an end of a tournament all the way to the end and win the trophy," Klinsmann said.
"Now it gets down to the grinding phase. I love the big stage and I love these moments. I personally love this moment and I hope they enjoy them too, they love them too."
It will be the first time Arnold and Klinsmann face off.
"I thought if we played Saudi Arabia, I would have had the suit on. Now he's (Mancini's) gone, I don't have to," Arnold joked at the prospect of facing Klinsmann, who also dons a polo on the sideline instead of a suit like the sharply-dressed Italian.
The Socceroos don't plan on giving South Korea room to breathe, let alone time on the ball.
"In these type of games we've shown over the last couple of years, especially the last year, our strength is our physicality, our intent of pressing and counter-pressing, not giving your opposition time on the ball and working hard and playing with high intensity. That won't change," Arnold said.
"We'll go out there and put pressure on them and make sure that we get our game plan right and their mindset right."
