Trailing 3-0 and with their Olympic hopes all but scuppered, Uzbekistan have vowed to take it up to the Matildas in the Melbourne leg of their qualifier.
It would take a minor miracle for the world No.47 to spring an upset big enough to actually challenge Australia - especially given the tie is determined on aggregate, with away goals a tiebreaker.
To top it all off, they will have to handle a sellout parochial crowd of more than 50,000 at Marvel Stadium.
When asked if they could even keep the tie alive, captain Lyudmila Karachik said through a translator: "We will try."
Uzbekistan sat back and frustrated a wasteful Australia, who didn't break through until Michelle Heyman's 73rd-minute header, in Tashkent.
With nothing to lose, and everything to gain, Uzbekistan's Japanese coach Midori Honda promised more attacking intent in the away leg.
"I hope that the game will be very good," Honda said.
"We hope also that we can show an aggressive answer to the Australian team.
"I hope that we can do more attacks than defence position. And we also hope to (have) more possession."
Karachik insisted the vocal crowd wouldn't be a problem.
"I think it will be OK. I've already seen that kind of atmosphere when we had the match in North Korea," she said.
"It's why I think it will be a good experience for me too."
Even if, as expected, the Uzbeks bow out, they have plenty of reasons to be proud after strong performances since former Japan international Honda took the reins in 2022.
Their path to the final four of Asian qualifying - only two teams make it to Paris - included wins over Vietnam and India, plus only losing 2-0 to Japan.
"There was a big difference between our personalities and characters because of the culture and people and also there were some misunderstandings in communications," Honda said.
"But I hope that the players will rise and hope that they can do more than now (going forward)."
