De Vanna says Canada will pose a far greater threat than the side that performed poorly at the 2015 World Cup.

Not happy with their poor performance at their home World Cup last year - where they failed to get out of the group stage - the Canadians have overhauled their squad.

Coming into Rio, they left out a number of the bronze medal-winnning team from London 2012 Olympics. And in a pre-tournament friendly, a youthful Canada side suffered a narrow 1-0 loss to highly rated France.

Even though the Matildas are expected to get a win in their opening group game, De Vanna agrees that the Matildas will be facing a side out for redemption and full of renewed enthusiasm.

“Oh definitely,” she said. “We are prepared for every game but obviously Canada is the crucial game for us in the group stages.

"Obviously to get off to a win first hit out is very important. We just have to focus on our game and we know what we are capable of as a football team when we get together and play our style of football.

“Canada are a very good team. We watched a bit of footage and they are quite different from the team that we saw a year ago and we are a different team from a year ago.

"It will be a very good hit out and one it will be a very important match for both of us because we know that once we win that first match it sets the tone for the rest of the tournament.”

The two teams come into Thursday morning’s game with a noticeable difference in their style of football - Canada have a more physical and direct approach while Australia possess skilful, quick and technical players.

Another point of difference is the team’s preparation. The Canucks spent time preparing in Rio to get a feel of the atmosphere and build-up of the Olympics.

In contrast the Australia's women have almost been under lockdown as they prepared for a week in Sao Paolo after another two weeks of training in Fortaleza.

De Vanna believes that skipping the the distractions of the carnival atmosphere in Rio - the centre of the games - will give the Matildas an advantage.

 “Everyone has got their way of preparing for the tournament,” she said. “Maybe that’s the best way they feel that they (Canada) can prepare for the tournament.

"For us to come here three weeks early to acclimatise and adjust to time difference is the way that we want to prepare and we can’t really worry too much about how other teams prepare because it’s the style and their way.

"We are quite lucky that we’ve had everyone together for three weeks before everyone else."

De Vanna added, “It’s obviously exciting to come to Brazil the nation of football.

"To play here is really exciting, we’ve been kept away and just focusing on football but we are enjoying the moment because it’s an Olympic games and it’s one of the most prestigious events an athlete can take part in.”