Mathew Leckie Australia v United Arab Emirates World Cup qualifying 28032017

Leckie confident Socceroos will perform well at home

Mathew Leckie may have a new club home, having signed with Hertha Berlin in May, but the winger is focused on more pressing matters for the moment. 

His Australia side face a massive clash with Saudi Arabia next week as the team looks to close the gap on World Cup qualifying group leaders Japan along with the Saudis. 

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The Socceroos sit three points behind their rivals with three games to play and face a vital clash at home on Thursday, and only the top two sides in the group secure an automatic place in the World Cup. 

Leckie knows his side can't afford anything less than a win at home if they are to claim one of those two places. 

"Saudi Arabia are in a good position on the table and we need to not just draw but win - it's a must-win," he told AAP. 

"'We're very confident. We are very, very strong at home, just like when we go away the other teams are strong.

"We will definitely cause a lot of problems for them and if we play at our best, it will be tough to stop us."

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The team comes in with an added bit of confidence stemming from manager Ange Postecoglou's fresh approach, having switched the Socceroos into a 3-4-3 formation that the winger believes makes the side more dangerous. 

"We can be very powerful and dangerous in that formation," Leckie said.

"But it comes with time as well, we have only had two games to stack it up."

The new system will need to work quickly. Following the match at home against Saudi Arabia the side must go on the road to take on Japan before closing the group with a home match against Thailand, leaving very little room for error. 

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