Mark Milligan is expecting another serious examination when Australia face the Netherlands but is confident the Socceroos can compete with the rampant Dutch.
Although Ange Postecoglou's men went down 3-1 to Chile in their first match of the World Cup on Friday, they did have the South American side worried throughout the second half in Cuiaba.
Up next is a tough assignment against Louis van Gaal's Oranje, who thrashed holders Spain 5-1 earlier in the day.
According to Milligan, there will be no let up in the intensive preparations that saw the Socceroos defy gloomy expectations of on-field embarrassment in Brazil.
"We'll prepare for that one as well as we've prepared for this one," he told SBS.
"It's a different proposition for us. Another very, very strong side. They play different football to Chile. They play a different style. I think we can take a lot of confidence from this and we can go into the next game with a real belief in each other."
The Melbourne Victory captain echoed the sentiments of his coach Postecoglou and goal-scorer Tim Cahill, praising an encouraging effort by the team despite failing to earn a reward for their endeavours.
"It was a very good performance, aside from the result for us," he said.
"I think early on we showed them too much respect and they took advantage of that. Because they're an excellent side, they're a world-class team and look, we fought hard to get back into the game.
"I think in the first half we had patches. I think the second half was much more consistent. I think we matched them round the park for the majority.
"Obviously that late one hurts we were sort of pushing on, trying to get that equaliser but look, they're a very strong side and I think they'll go a long way in this tournament."
The midfielder credited a half-time team talk from Postecoglou as the driving force behind the Socceroos' improved display after the break at the Arena Pantanal.
"He just told us to believe in ourselves," Milligan said.
"We'd shown that once we started doing things the way that we wanted to, pressing the way we wanted to, playing out the way wanted to, we were getting chances, we were creating openings. That was the main message. Not to be overawed by them. And to stick to our guns I guess."
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