“I think they've got that at the back of their mind,” said Montemurro after Tuesday’s Official Draw. “I think they know what they need to do in terms of fixing what was not a positive tournament in India and they know exactly what they need to do from that perspective.

“We've got the advantage of being at home, we've got the crowd behind us and we've got everyone in a good shape and picking the squad's going to be an interesting one.”

Montemurro was working in Italy with Juventus when the Matildas were knocked out of the previous edition and has since been called upon by Football Australia to take on the role as Gustavsson’s long-term replacement.

The 55-year-old former Arsenal and Olympique Lyon coach felt the loss was a reflection of the kinds of challenges teams can experience during centralised tournaments, when the strongest squads do not always emerge with the title.

“I remember it, I remember the amount of chances we missed,” he said. “I think I turned it off with about 15 minutes to go and said: ‘Oh, it's not good’. But it happens and we've seen tournaments now, we've seen a Euros where maybe not the best team (England) won the Euros and they found a way.

 

“So in tournament football, there's always going to be one or two games where you've just got to find a way. You've just got to find a way, you won't be scoring and you might need a last minute something to get through.

 

“And it's my job to paint the picture, as many scenarios as possible that we could face in a tournament, and hope to make it familiar so we can get through.”

Midfielder Tameka Yallop was a member of the Matildas squad that was eliminated by the Koreans in 2022, although she was unavailable to play after being struck down by COVID-19 in the lead-up to the quarter-final.

 

“I was actually watching that game on a little laptop screen because I had COVID, so I was in isolation in that moment,” she said.

“It was pretty heart wrenching to watch it on a tiny screen while I was in India, but I think a lot has happened and we obviously now have a head coach that’s got some time to give us direction.

 

“We’ll be focusing on the process anyway. We're excited, we're a collective and, we’re ready for anything.”