Australia recorded their first win of the tournament on Wednesday (AEST), comprehensively defeating Zimbabwe 6-1 in Group F. Prior to the game the Matildas looked in trouble initially after they managed a 2-0 loss to Canada and a subsequent 2-2 draw to Germany.

The win guaranteed a place in the knockout phase against either Brazil or United States – both countries Australia knows very well in women’s football.

Had Australia won by seven goals, the Matildas would have risen to second on the table after Germany’s 2-1 loss to Canada. But Stajcic made it clear before and after the game the ultimate aim was to simply beat Zimbabwe regardless of the margin.

“At the end of the day in the big picture we got through to the quarter-finals, that’s the main objective and when you get there I don’t really care who we play,” Stajcic said.

“They’re all tough games and we don’t need to worry about them (Brazil or United States) because they’re all very good. If we play our best against any of them, we’ll be very good.

“We just needed to win today to get through, we knew if we won by one goal we would be through. We weren’t thinking about scoring more goals than Germany, but when we heard the result three quarters of the way through the game obviously we were pushing hard to get that seventh goal.

“We just couldn’t capitalise on some of those chances late in the game, for us it doesn’t matter, if you’d given me 6-1 before the day I would’ve been happy because I know it gets us through to the quarter-finals.”

With the possibility of playing Brazil in the knockout phase, Australia have fresh knowledge after their 3-1 friendly loss in Fortaleza two weeks ago.

And reflecting back on Australia’s defining 1-0 win to Brazil in the Round of 16 2015 World Cup, Stajcic deemed all past encounters as irrelevant.

“At the end of the day none of that matters, it only matters how we play in the next game whether that’s Brazil or America, it’s only what you do in the next game,” he said.

“We know we can beat them (Brazil) and they know they can beat us, so it’ll be a very even game. They’ve been playing very well, they’re in good form and they’ve got some world class players.

“We know we can compete with everyone on the day and if we play our best then it’ll be a very exciting match up.

“We’re in the quarter-finals and we’re happy with that, we go there with a fit and healthy thing which is the most important thing.”