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Postecoglou confident Australia squad can progress

SoccerNews in General Soccer News 26 Jan 2015

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Australia will rotate their starting XI for Tuesday’s Asian Cup semi-final with the United Arab Emirates, says coach Ange Postecoglou.

Ange Postecoglou says he has confidence in Australia’s squad to enable him to make another round of changes for their Asian Cup semi-final clash with United Arab Emirates on Tuesday. 

The host nation reached the last four thanks to a Tim Cahill double against China in Thursday’s quarter-final.

Speaking at the official pre-match press conference, Postecoglou said he will look to freshen up his side as they look to reach a second successive final.

“Everyone’s pulled up really well from the quarter-final game,” he said. “Obviously Matty Spiranovic is available again so we’ve a full list of 22 to select from which is key for me.

“We’ll have a final look at it today and obviously we’ve had a look at the opposition in the last couple of days.

“We’ll make some changes. Again they’ll be designed to put out a team that we think can be successful tomorrow night.”

Spiranovic is expected to replace Alex Wilkinson in the heart of defence, while Mat Leckie and Ivan Franjic could be rotated after carrying slight niggles following the quarter-final win.

Postecoglou praised the depth of his squad ahead of Tuesday’s clash and believes the team will get the job done against the UAE regardless of the personnel on the field.

He continued: “We learnt from the World Cup that we didn’t have a great deal of depth and we’ve spent the last six months creating some depth in the team. We’re getting the benefit of that now.

“The biggest difference for us is that we’ve spent the last six months exposing as many players as we could to how tough international football is and also expose them to how we want to play.

“Now I’ve got every player who’s in this camp who I’m quite confident I can put them out there and they can do the job.”

However, Postecoglou dismissed claims that his side would suffer from over-confidence having avoided Japan in the last four, instead suggesting the UAE will be just as difficult to overcome.

“We’ve got great respect for them and we’ve been tracking them since the World Cup,” he added.

“We had a feeling that they could be a likely opponent… and thought they’d be one of the teams to get through to the knockout rounds.

“We know them really well. As we do with every opponent we’ve analysed them and we know tomorrow night is going to be a real tough challenge for us.”

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