By Shintaro Kano, KYODO NEWS - Aug 29, 2017 - 13:16 | Sports, All

Australia will be more than motivated for Thursday's World Cup qualifier against Japan, with their place in Russia next year riding on the sellout game at Saitama Stadium.

But Ange Postecoglou's men will have added incentive to beat Japan and become the first Socceroos team to win on Japanese soil, having never beaten them in the teams' past 23 full internationals here.

"It would be an added bonus," Australia winger Robbie Kruse said on Tuesday. "To be the first team to win here would be pretty special, obviously, in the circumstances we're under."

"I'm sure there's a lot of pressure on Japan, also. But we're not heading into the game thinking about creating history. We're just coming into the game wanting to perform well and get the three points."

"That's the main thing and we're all confident we can do it."

The Japan-Australia matchup on the World Cup qualifying stage has traditionally been close, with the Socceroos owning the slight edge with two wins from seven games. The rest have ended in draws, the most recent being a 1-1 result in Melbourne in October.

In that draw last year, Japan threw the hosts by sitting back and trying to play them off the break, a game Postecoglou described as a "funny performance" from Vahid Halilhodzic's men.

But on Thursday, it could be Japan left scratching their heads, despite Halilhodzic claiming he knows everything there is to know about the Australian team.

"You never know with the boss," Kruse said, when asked how his side could line up. "You find out come game day, but I think it keeps everyone on their toes and everyone has to prepare like they're playing. It keeps a good atmosphere on the team where no one is guaranteed of a starting spot."

"Football is not sometimes about what the best eleven is but it's about what team can get the job done. We have such a strong squad that you saw when there were six or seven changes from the Cameroon (Confederations Cup) game, every single player stood up."

"It gives the coach a lot of headaches and something that's going to help us in the long term."

Australia are coming off an inspiring outing at the Confederations Cup in June, when they held eventual finalists Chile to a 1-1 draw in their final match.

The pressure weighs heavy on both teams as Thursday nears, but Kruse echoed Postecoglou's remarks a day earlier, saying it goes with the turf and that Australia are confident in their chances of beating Japan.

"Everyone's used to the pressure now," he said. "We played three massive games at the Confederations Cup and we held our own. Our last game, we were extremely good and probably deserving of a victory."

"It's a big game for both nations but that comes with international football. There's usually no tomorrow when it comes to international games -- if you don't perform in 90 minutes, you go home. It's definitely the case in this game."

Former Urawa Reds defender Matthew Spiranovic, who rejoined the squad for this international window after suffering a quad injury in training in March, added, "The two biggest games are coming up, everything's on the line. It's about which team can stay calm and composed and of course, there is pressure there."

"I think it's just going to be a great contest between two great teams."