Unfazed by being written off by Turkey captain Hakan Calhanoglu, Socceroos coach Tony Popovic has urged his charges to "spoil the party" and show the world what they can do.
The Socceroos open their World Cup campaign against the world No.22, who have qualified for their first finals since 2002, at Vancouver's BC Place on Saturday (Sunday AEST).
When asked about Australia at training on Friday, Calhanoglu declared he expected a "more talented" Turkey to dominate the clash.
"Of course, our coach analysed them with us together," Inter Milan defender Calhanoglu told media in Vancouver.
"So we know that they're a physical team, that they're good at the corner kicks and on the free kicks because they are tall and strong.
"But I think that we dominate tomorrow, the game, because we have more qualities and a more talented team, so we will see tomorrow what happens."
His comments didn't faze Popovic and midfielder Aiden O'Neill.
"I respect his comment, and he has a right to be asked a question, and he has a right to answer it any way he likes," Popovic said.
"They expect to win, but so do most people. They expect Turkey here to beat Australia tomorrow, so that's no different.
"So all we can do is try and spoil the party."
O'Neill added: "He's allowed his own opinion. We've got quality players in our team too."
Popovic is determined for his team to prove a point against Turkey, who are headlined by young guns Arda Guler and Kenan Yildiz
"We know they are strong. We've analysed them, but we also have to think of ourselves and think how we can cause them problems and show Australian football at the World Cup," Popovic said.
"And that's our aim tomorrow, to be extremely competitive, to show that we are a strong nation and that we deserve to be respected.
"We understand that not many people are expecting much from us outside of our own people, our own media, our own team, our own staff, but we're accustomed to that.
"But we're confident that we can show them some great football tomorrow and show them what Australian football can do."
Popovic kept his cards close to his chest on where the Socceroos could gain an advantage.
"Every nation that will play the three group games, I'm sure that all the media in here will tell us the same thing - USA thinks that they should beat us, Paraguay thinks they should beat us, Turkey thinks they should beat us," Popovic said.
"That's no different for us. All we can do is do our own part, work the way we work, prepare how we can to our best, and without words, with action, we can show that we deserve to be here.
"And then we have every right to believe we can get through the group, that's what we aim to do."
The Socceroos are attempting to win their opening game for the first time since Tim Cahill delivered a 3-1 win over Japan in Kaiserslautern in 2006.
The US and Paraguay play on Friday (Saturday AEST) and get first shot at claiming the upper hand in Group D.
At Australia's training session on Friday night, all eyes were on striker Mohamed Toure, who missed training on Wednesday with what Popovic described as a "runny nose".
Popovic insisted he had a full squad available and Toure was training with his teammates in the 15 minutes open to media.
