Socceroos Brett Emerton and Luke Wilkshire are expecting a tough test from Wales when they do battle at the Cardiff City Stadium on Thursday morning.
The first ever meeting between the two countries is sure to be interesting, with the likes of Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey and Craig Bellamy all included in Wales' 25-man squad.
Despite Australia's opponents being ranked 112th in the FIFA rankings, Emerton and Wilkshire do not think it will be easy against a Welsh side that is sure to be fired-up in front of their home crowd.
"I think it's an exciting game and I think the Welsh team is full of some fantastic names that are known worldwide," Emerton said from the UK on Monday.
"I think they are a good team who have probably underachieved in recent times so they are going to be a good opposition for us and it'll be an entertaining game."
Wilkshire echoed the sentiments of Emerton and feels the match will be a good test for Holger Osieck's squad as they finalise their preparations ahead of the first stage of qualifying for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
"They've got some good players, they've got talent," Wilkshire said.
"You look on paper, they've got some very good players playing at big clubs. It's not going to be an easy game, that's for sure, especially here. I'm expecting a tough game so it's a good challenge for us."
Everton midfielder Tim Cahill was not that worried about the result, insisting that the match was all about the performance.
"(If) we can create some good chances, play well and hopefully win the game then it'll be a positive," Cahill said.
"Win or lose, I think it's not about the result, I think for us it's about trying to get as much game time together as possible before we go into this hard schedule."
With the first qualifier against Thailand less than a month away, Socceroos goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer preferred to take a long-term view on the friendly, hoping that all members of the 18-man squad – which is almost entirely European-based – can perform, with a big squad required for a successful qualification campaign.
"The campaign is a long campaign and we need a very big squad," Schwarzer said.
"We need a lot of good players that are capable of playing at international level and again be able to deal with all the conditions we are going to come across."
Emerton also shared some forthright views on qualification, with the Blackburn midfielder suggesting that the Socceroos did not deserve to make the 2014 FIFA World Cup if they could not get out of a group containing Saudi Arabia, Oman and Thailand.
"Obviously we'd like to consider ourselves as favourites," Emerton said.
"As far as I'm concerned, if we can't qualify obviously through this particular group, we don't deserve to go to a World Cup."
"We have to go to some difficult places and play against some very good teams, so it's going to be tough but I think we have enough quality within the side to make sure we progress and get through to that second round."