Australia ready for 'war' with Argentina

Australia coach Graham Arnold has vowed his side will take on Argentina with "all guns blazing" in their World Cup last-16 showdown.

The Socceroos were surprise qualifiers from Group D, not least after losing their first match 4-1 against France.

But successive 1-0 wins over Tunisia and Denmark took Australia to the knockout stages for the first time since 2006, and Arnold insists they are not finished yet.

"Look, the group games are past us and it's a one-off game, anything could happen," said Arnold. "It’s 11 v 11, a battle, a war and we’ve got to fight that. We’ll give it everything, all guns blazing.

"We respect Argentina, for sure, but we can’t focus solely on them. We respect them but we respect ourselves and what we bring to the table."

Arnold feels Australia’s success is payback for a gruelling qualifying campaign, where Covid restrictions back home meant playing most of their matches away, including five in Qatar itself.

"The universe is paying us back for the hard work we put in," he added. "We played four games out of 20 at home, and we had some hard journeys.

"But Covid helped unite this team together, these boys were in lockdown in hotels.

"The fact we played five qualifiers in Qatar gave us experience of being here, and now we’ve won six out of seven games in Qatar. For us, it’s a home away from home.

"One thing we have achieved is bringing light to the nation after Covid and reuniting our sport. We’ve seen the scenes of celebration and it really makes everyone proud, and we want more.

"We haven’t finished yet, we are turning up to win another game tomorrow."

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