Chile won the Copa America in 2015 and 2016, are now ranked fourth in the world and have reached the round of 16 in both the 2010 and 2014 World Cups. La Roja play an exciting, high-intensity game built around a high press and dominating possession.

Chile’s new playing style was introduced by former coach Jorge Sampaoli in 2012, a disciple of Marcelo Biesla, and has been continued by current boss Juan Antonio Pizzi.

The South American champions have the respect of Postecoglou, who desires Australia to follow a similar path of progression.

“They’re a very good team,” he said. “They were back in the World Cup and they been for a number of years. They’ve probably grown since then, evidenced by them winning a continental trophy. You can see they’re a very settled squad, their best players are all playing at the highest possible level.

“They’ve got all the attributes to be a top team. They’re really committed to a certain style of game, which for someone like me that is the real admirable way to go about things. To be honest I was quite excited when we got them in the draw.

"It’s the kind of team we want to play against because in some form of respect we want to emulate some of their feats. They were small fish in their continent for a while and started to change that.

"We’re trying to change that ourselves as well, so there’s no greater measure and we’re looking forward it.”

Australia have to beat Chile by at least two goals on Sunday (Monday morning AEST) to reach the semi-finals and stay alive in the tournament. Postecoglou said the Socceroos will not sit back and wait for their chance, but attack from kick off.

"It's a game we have to win," he said.

"There's no point sitting back and waiting for things to kick in. We'll try and match their intensity, match their workrate, match their emphasis to try and dominate the game and see where that takes us."