The Australian national team may play what is theoretically the easiest match in the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup, when it meets its Indonesian counterpart, but Australia coach Graham Arnold said on Saturday that the team coming from Southeast Asia will be a difficult competitor to overcome.

The Indonesian national team was the last to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup held in Qatar, and it ranked among the top 4 teams that ranked third in their groups.

The Indonesian national team, which scored 3 points in the group stage, will clash with the Australian national team, which qualified from top of Group Two.

The Indonesian team has the lowest ranking among all the teams qualifying for the final eight and is 121 places behind its Australian competitor, but Arnold is aware of the fact that the Indonesian team includes players born abroad who were naturalized with the team qualifying for the Asian Cup finals for the first time in 17 years.

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Arnold said: “There are many new faces in the Indonesian national team and many of them are foreigners, and some Spanish players have participated in the team. But in the end, this is how Asia grows, and the Asian Championship is becoming more difficult.”

He added: “Confronting Indonesia is not a battle between David and Goliath, but rather they are two teams that will give their best. They have shown during this tournament so far how strong they are, against Japan and Iraq, and of course through their victory over Vietnam.”

He continued: “The most important mentality…and the Australian approach is that we fight until the end.”

The Australian team did enough to qualify for the final 16, but questions still remain about the team’s lack of a top scorer, and Arnold (60 years old) attributed the reason for this to the process of rebuilding the team.

Arnold said: “This is due to the fact that the players have changed. We have only 12 players here who participated in the World Cup. Some players retired, some were injured, and some were ruled out.”

He added: “The team must be renewed all the time, otherwise nothing will change… You are not supposed to just sit and think that the players will always be present… Renewing the team is also important and bringing these young people in order to give them a chance is crucial.”