When the Socceroos were drawn to play Honduras the intercontinental play-off much of the Australia media painted the Central American country as a dangerous destination, citing the country’s high murder rate.

It led to suggestions that Australia would avoid Honduras leading up to the first leg but Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou and FFA decided the team would spend the week in the Central American country to acclimatise.

Figueroa was one of the first players to arrive in Honduras in preparation for the first leg play-off which will be played at The Estadio Olímpico Metropolitano in the city of San Pedro Sula 

The former Hull defender warned that Honduras would use the negative portrayals of their country by the Australian media as a motivational tool for the meeting with the Socceroos on Friday, 10 November.

“If they come to a football game they will meet soccer people, but they do not come to a war, the only war they will find is inside the field," Figueroa said speaking to Honduras newspaper Diez.

“Out of there we are human beings like them, maybe they are in a more developed country. But it's okay, that's good for us to touch our ego and it's something extra for us on match day.”

The Socceroos will be happy to take a draw or a narrow loss with them back to Australia after the first leg but Figueroa is sure that Honduras will be looking to attack at home.

“Of course in our house you have to score the most goals and avoid them scoring,” he said.

“So you have to be very focused not to enter with that anxiety and desperation because at some point we did that against Mexico and we conceded goals, this game we have to face it intelligently.

“Obviously we would like to win with as many goals as we can and as a player and fan I want the national team to win.”

Honduras faces two days of travel after the first match while Australia will be on a charter flight and arrive a day earlier to Sydney, but Figueroa was confident about a result in the first leg.

“There are advantages and disadvantages of playing at home first." he said.

“But an advantage is that in the second game we will have more knowledge of the opponent.

“But it is better to leave who has the advantages aside and try to take full advantage of us imposing ourselves at home.”