The Matildas will face the team that ended their last Women’s Asian Cup dream in the group stage of next year’s home tournament after being drawn against South Korea, the Philippines and Iran in Group A.
The draw for the 2026 event, which will be staged in Australia, took place at Sydney Town Hall on Tuesday night, and confirmed when and where the Matildas will play their group matches.
Australia will take part in the tournament opener against the Philippines at Perth’s Optus Stadium on Sunday 1 March before jetting across the country to play Iran at Cbus Super Stadium on the Gold Coast on Thursday 5 March.
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The rematch with the South Koreans will then take place at Sydney’s Accor Stadium on Sunday 8 March.
The top two teams from each group will advance to the quarter-finals as well the two best third placed finishers across the three groups of four.
Quarter-finals will then be played from Friday 13 March to Sunday 15 March at Perth’s HBF Park and Sydney’s Stadium Australia.
The same two venues will also host the semi-finals on Tuesday 17 March and Wednesday 18 March.
The final will then be staged on Saturday 21 March at Stadium Australia in Sydney.
The world No.15 Matildas were placed in Pot 1 alongside world No.7 Japan and world No.9 North Korea as the third highest ranked country in the tournament.
New manager Joe Montemurro has just two more international windows to embed his tactics and find the right combinations before the Asian Cup.
The former Lyon, Juventus and Arsenal boss’ tenure began with two wins, a draw and a loss in friendlies against Slovenia and Panama, but most of the team’s star players sat out those matches after gruelling club seasons.
Regardless, Montemurro knows the expectations will be high on home soil after the semi-final run when the nation hosted the World Cup two years ago.
“In any tournament, the expectations were what they were,” Montemurro said.
“I couldn’t predict that I wanted this team or that team. Now it’s a little bit clearer, the style of teams we’re playing, and it’s a little bit clearer on how we approach the build-up into it.”
The Matildas won the continental crown in 2010, but were eliminated in the quarter-finals in India three years ago.
Montemurro believes the shock 1-0 defeat to South Korea lingers in the minds of several of his players.
“Look, I think they’ve got that at the back of their mind,” he said.
“They know what they need to do in terms of fixing what was not a positive tournament in India.
“We’ve got the advantage of being at home.
“We’ve got the crowd behind us.”
Each group:
Group A – Australia, South Korea, Iran, Philippines
Group B – North Korea, China, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan
Group C – Japan, Vietnam, India, Taiwan