The Socceroos need a result against the Danes in Samara on Thursday (10pm AEST) after their 2-1 loss to France in Kazan last week.

Peru had a total of 18 shots against Denmark last week and the coach conceded they focused too much on the result, rather than the performance.

“Looking at the last match alone, I should be worried, they had too many opportunities,” Hareide said in Samara on Wednesday.

“Out of the last 16 matches we’ve played, it’s the match where we’ve had the highest number of goal opportunities against us and that’s worrying.

“They had a lot of men going forward and we had very good opportunities towards the end. I’m not so worried about our defence, but we need to get better against Australia so they won’t have many chances.”

There is uncertainty as to who will start upfront for Australia against Denmark, with Andrew Nabbout, Jamie Maclaren, Tomi Juric and Tim Cahill all in the mix.

Nabbout started against the French, but was unable to create any clear-cut chances before he was replaced by Juric.

Despite the ambiguity, Hareide said it wasn’t making a difference in Denmark’s preparation.

“We know they have people that can come in and play slightly differently from the way they played against France,” he said.

“They have a good structure and the way we organise, it’ll be the same even if they replace one or two men, it’s not going to change anything for us.

“They have players who worked well together against France, so I’m not going to worry too much about which striker they’re going to use.

“They’re all good and Tim Cahill knows how to score, so we have to be careful.”

Hareide also praised Bert van Marwijk and believes tomorrow’s game is a battle of wits.

"Defensively, Australia have really improved under their new coach and they’re playing in a new way, they’ve become better,” The Norwegian said.

“We came up against a very strong opponent, Peru. We were slightly off-balanced and we’ll come up against a strong opponent tomorrow. We’re working with staff the way we normally do, mentally we have to be strong and that’s the all-important part.

“When you have these important matches, you have to be ready for the next match, but ready in the head first of all. The team that’s the strongest in the head will win tomorrow.”