Australia's and Liverpool's striker Harry Kewell played down the aggressive finger-pointing discussion he had with Marcus Merk, after the latter’s final whistle was blown. Kewell remained positive and totally satisfied by the Socceroos performance in their match against World Champions Brazil.

The match statistics indicate that twenty five fouls were given against Australia from Marcus Merk, as opposed to Brazil's nine, which made the Liverpool FC player run towards the referee after the final whistle was blown and started an aggressive discussion, finger-pointing at Marcus Merc as the two teams and the match officials were walking towards the changing rooms.

"It was a heat of the moment thing, I think the referee takes that into consideration the frustration at losing the game, so every ref puts up with it, it's part and parcel of the game. He knows there's no harm meant in it," Kewell said.

"It's frustrating, because you go out there and play so well against the world champions and you come off losing, when you think you could have come off with something."

The end result left Brazil at the top of Group F with 6 points and Australia second with 3 points, while Croatia and Japan have from one point. This means that the next match between Australia and Croatia is a must win situation, as Japan is highly unlikely to win Brazil.

These two teams have a somewhat special relationship, as some players born in Croatia play for Australia while some players born in Australia play for Croatia. There were a few war-of-words incidents between the two sides after the end of the qualification tournament and it is extraordinary to note that both need to win if they are to continue to the knockout stages of the World Cup 2006.

It will be a deeply emotional match for both teams and the Socceroos seem already up to the challenge. "It's going to be a massive one for us and Australia. It means a lot for us to get through and a lot to the Australian fans. We're going to be up for it and it should be a cracking game," Kewell said.

"I don't think we can go out against Croatia and look for a draw. I think we have to go out and win the game because that's what we do, we don't go out to play soft football, we go out there to win..."

"We proved that today. We weren't afraid to go out and play Brazil and I'm proud of every single one of the boys today because they showed what we are really made of," Liverpool's international striker said.

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