The two meet this morning (11.00 am, AEST) in Rio in the Olympic football quarter final after the Matildas finished third in Group F after thrashing Zimbabwe 6-1 in their must-win final group match on Tuesday.
Only a late goal by the Zimbabweans prevented Australia grabbing second spot ahead of the Germans and thus avoiding a showdown with the formidable Brazilians.
Brazil, which is ranked eighth in the world, finished on top of its group after a scoreless draw with South Africa in its final group match.
It will be the second meeting between the fifth-ranked Matildas and Brazil in less than a month after a pre-tournament warm up match ended 3-1 in the Brazilians’ favour. The Matildas led 1-nil in that game at the break but conceded three second half goals after going down to 10 players.
The history of recent encounters between the two nations suggests a close and even quarter-final even though the Brazilians will go in as favourites with the advantage of a home crowd behind them.
“Two weeks ago Brazil beat us 3-1 in a friendly game, but we beat them at the World Cup,” Matildas’ coach Alen Stajcic said in the build-up to the quarter-final.
“They toured Australia two years ago – they won one game and we won one game.
“We know we can beat them and they know that they can beat us, so it will be a very even game. They’re in good form and they obviously have some world-class players, but I know that we can compete with everyone on the day.”
The winner of the Brazil v Australia quarter-final will play the winner of US v Sweden in one of the semi-finals. The winners of China v Germany and France v Canada will meet in the other semi-final.