Australia's 4-0 drubbing at the hands of the Germans and Ghana's narrow win over Serbia means the Socceroos must win their next match if they are to be any hope of making the round of 16.

Emerton, one of Australia's best players on Sunday night, said that the team's experienced core will be crucial to turning things around in the space of six days.

"I think we've all been on the end of some bad results in our careers. That's the thing about football you have to put things behind you and just focus on the next game. I'm sure we will use it in the right way and make ourselves more determined to do well," he said.

Emerton echoed the sentiments of team-mate Vince Grella when he said that the Socceroos can not afford to get too caught up in what went wrong in Durban. Instead, the focus this week must be on Ghana, and Ghana alone.

"I think Germany are a very good team but I don't think we helped ourselves either. When we got possession of the ball we gave it away far too easy and they seem to cut us open fairly easy. Hopefully we learn a lesson from it and go into the next game in better shape," he said.

"I still feel we've got a good team, for some reason against Germany we weren't at it. That's football. The best thing we can do is try and forget about it and learn from our mistakes and try to improve on that next time."

Emerton said that challenge of turning things around in such a short time frame will be the toughest test of the Socceroos' character in his time in the national team.

"It's a huge challenge, but that's the beauty of football, things can change in an instant. I think the next two games we have to win both of them, there's no doubt about that. It's going to be a massive task, but fingers crossed hopefully we can do it," he added.