Mathew Leckie has said that he is confident Australia can cause a shock when they take on world champions Germany this week.
The Socceroos claimed a major scalp four years ago when they beat the Germans 2-1 in Monchengladbach, and Leckie believes that his team are in good shape to upset their illustrious hosts once again.
"Nobody over here sees us as a pushover anymore," Leckie told The World Game.
"Hopefully we'll put in a good performance and earn even more respect. Most important is for us to play well and continue on the path we are on. Hopefully we're at the beginning of something big and we can show that by knocking off the world champions. It would be big scalp for us.
"I've had a bit of a muck around with my teammates and have done a few interviews and it's obvious that we're seen in a good light after how we performed at the World Cup and then becoming Asian champions. Germany are the best team in world right now and we'll see how far off we are from them after this game."
Leckie has spent the past four seasons playing in Germany and he is currently based at Bundesliga 2 outfit FC Ingolstadt 04.
Alex Meyers
