Matildas to pull switch

New-look line-up may face Chile in Adelaide

MATILDAS coach Ante Milicic has hinted at several changes for tomorrow’s friendly against Chile as the selection battles heat up for the Olympic qualifiers.

After relying on a Sam Kerr brace for an unconvincing 2-1 win over the world No.37 on Saturday, the two-game series now heads to Adelaide.

And in what will be their final match before their qualification campaign begins in February, Milicic could field a new-look line-up at Coopers Stadium.

Alanna Kennedy (suspension), Tameka Yallop (injury) and Karly Roestbakken (Young Matildas) are all likely to figure for some rested players.

“There’s a duty of care for the players, particularly in a game like this,” Milicic said.

“If anything, you’ve got to hold them back because when they see a crowd like that and a pitch like we trained on [Saturday], they want to be involved.

“But the W-League is starting [next week], we’ve got really important games in January, so let’s all be sensible about this and understand where we’re at.”

The Matildas enjoyed most of the possession on Saturday and had double the amount of shots on goal yet managed to convert on just two occasions.

But Milicic was relatively satisfied with his team’s display at Bankwest Stadium in Sydney, especially given that a large chunk of his squad entered the game underdone.

And while he had hoped to see his players back themselves in front of goal, he said they welcomed the challenge of attacking a defensiveminded opposition.

“We wanted to spend more time in the opposition frontthird. So we didn’t want to make the wrong decisions or make decisions too quickly,” he said. “We knew that it’s the type of opponent that gets a lot of bodies back behind the ball. They defend deep in the box.

“We just felt it was an area that we really wanted to work on. I like to give the attacking players in that front third a fair bit of freedom to make their own decisions but I thought there were a couple of opportunities there.”