Australia head coach Tony Gustavsson has ramped up the mind games ahead of tomorrow’s Women’s World Cup semi-final by labelling England as “massive favourites”.
Gustavsson believes the Lionesses’ financial resources and squad depth dwarf that of Australia, who are appearing in their first ever semi-final.
Over 75,000 are expected at Stadium Australia in Sydney for tomorrow’s game and Gustavsson hopes that can help turn the tide. But he has stressed how his side are underdogs as they aim to “write history” against the European champions.
“If you look at rankings they’re favourites,” said Gustavsson.
“If you look at where their players play they have starting players in top clubs, in top leagues all over the world. Not just starting XI, down to 15, 16.
“Then compared to us, we have bench players in those teams. We have players playing in mid-table teams in Sweden.
“So if you look at all that and you look at resources, financially, obviously they are massive favourites going into this game.
“But the one thing that we have that they don’t have is the support and belief from the fans. That in itself is going to be massive tomorrow. This team have shown time after time that they are willing, ready and able to break down barriers and write history.”
Australia captain Sam Kerr is pushing to make her first start of the tournament after missing the entire group stage.
She managed over an hour off the bench in the quarter-final win over France and Gustavsson stressed the importance of thinking about his “best finishing XI”.
“Sam pushed through more minutes than we hoped for [against France], to be honest,” he said.
“One of the reasons why we kept her on the bench is we weren’t certain how many minutes she had, from that calf injury but also the limited training minutes she had.
“The way she pushed through was fantastic and impressive, both the mental and physical aspects.”
West Ham goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold was the hero of Australia’s penalty shootout win over France and has had a street named after her in Melbourne.
“I guess the last couple of days have been a pretty big whirlwind for me,” she said.
“Obviously I have not received attention like that [before], but at the same time I just tend to block it out because I know if I play like s*** tomorrow it could be a whole different attention on me.”
