The Matildas escaped Group F in an ugly manner and despite their good performances had to do it the hard way by finishing third in the table. It wasn’t glamourous given the high expectations placed on them in the lead-up to the tournament, but now they look forward to meeting the hosts in a 60,000 capacity stadium.

With the group stage deemed as irrelevant by coach Alen Stajcic, this will be the biggest test for Australia coming up against the host nation in a passionate and hostile environment. And with the improvement shown by the Matildas during the tournament, Catley believes they can take it to Brazil.

“This is definitely the biggest game I’ll be playing in my career, I think the World Cup games we’ve played - the Round of 16 against Brazil last time was huge and a massive experience for me,” Catley said.

“Now a year later, a bit more experience, we’re ready to go again and get another win. It feels huge and I can’t wait to get out there.

“It’ll be extremely fun, that’s the occasion we play football for, the experiences you want as a professional footballer and Brazil is the home of football. 

“It’s going to be huge, we went to the stadium today, it’s beautiful and it’s set for a big atmosphere, so I can’t wait.”

Wind the clocks back 12 months, in this period of time, Catley featured in her first World Cup for Australia, won the W-League with Melbourne City, featured as the first Matilda on the cover of FIFA and is now a sensation for NWSL side Orlando Pride, winning the hearts of many American football fans.

Catley along with teammate Laura Alleway share the backline with Brazilian opponent Monica and may well meet in the encounter. Australia’s progression was highlighted by the 22-year-old, after an undefeated qualifying campaign saw Australia progress to the Olympics.

And with much of the talk reflecting back on Australia’s stirring 1-0 victory over Brazil in the 2015 World Cup, Catley believes they’re at the right stage to get something out of the Olympics after the experiences they’ve had.

 “A lot of things change over time, it has been a while since that game. We’re both different teams since then, we take a lot of confidence we’ve come a long way as a team since then and they have too,” she said.

“I feel like we’ve grown a lot and we know what they’re good players are capable of, so we’ll be ready for them.

“We’ve got a lot of experience under our belts and we are playing some really great football, it’ll be the perfect opportunity to take a step forward from what we did at the World Cup and to make some more progress.

“There has been a fair bit of pressure put on this tournament because this group is capable of so much, we have so many good players. It feels like we’re at the right stage and the right time and everything’s come together really well.

“We think we’re at the stage where we can compete with them (the best in the world), so this group has worked very hard to get where we are now and I definitely think we can do that.”