After not being at their best against Canada in the opening game, the Matildas face an arguably tougher test in world number two Germany in Sao Paulo on Sunday morning (7am AEST).  

The 2-0 defeat to a 10-player Canadian team provided a bump in the road for the Matildas, however Polkinghorne said the resolve in the Australian camp will come through against the Germans. 

“We haven't lost any of the belief or confidence in ourselves,” she said. 

“It was only the first game and we've got two games to try turn things around and that's the beauty of tournament football you don't win and lose it in the first game so you've got to make sure you turn up every game prepared to play and get the result, so that's what we're going to do.

“I think we all know we can perform better and we weren't at our best against Canada and we had a lot of chances to win the game or get ourselves back in the game which we didn't take.

“We need to fix up a few little things and tidy those little bits and pieces up and take those into the Germany game.” 

The German team was impressive in their opening game with a 6-1 victory over Zimbabwe and Polkinghorne recognised the size of the challenge the number-two ranked team in the world represents for the Australians. 

“They're obviously a powerhouse in football both mens and womens and it's going to be an extremely tough challenge for us,” she said. 

“They're going to be physical, technically very good and they've got a lot of strike power up front and a lot of dangerous players that we'll have to look out for.”

While the Matildas won’t necessarily be out of the tournament if they fail to win in Sao Paulo, Polkinghorne labelled the game as must-win for the Australians.

“I think we need to win both of our next games so it's in our control rather than waiting on other results,” she said.

“We want to make sure that we put ourselves in the best position and after the first loss we need to get two wins and we'll need to kick that off tomorrow against Germany.”