Aziz Behich: Great to be playing in Melbourne

Aziz Behich was feeling excited ahead of the CommBank Socceroos' clash against Curaçao - their last game on home soil before the FIFA World Cup™. 

The Aussies host the World Cup opponent in Melbourne in their second FIFA Series 2026™ game after a 1-0 win over Cameroon on Friday.

Behich, who has 81 caps for his country, discussed the performance against the African outfit, and his delight about the prospect of playing in his home city again in front of friends and family, while setting sights on a third World Cup.

Back in home town and reflecting on Cameroon victory

It's always nice to be back on home soil and playing in front of our fans. We don't get that often, but being in Melbourne obviously a bit more special for myself being a Melbourne boy. But look, it's an important game for us. I thought we put in a good performance the other day against Cameroon and we want to improve on that.

Potential opportunity of going to a third FIFA World Cup

I'd love to. Obviously I went through the whole qualification phase, representing your country is always special. But doing it on the world stage is obviously huge and I've been fortunate enough to do it two times. I'll do everything I can in my power to put my best foot forward and hopefully impress the boss.

Approach to the game against Curaçao

It's the same message as always. We're going to every game to win, but obviously at the same time to improve all the time from from the previous games, and I think evolve as a group. I think we've been doing that when you look at the past games. So it's going to be no different, it's a different test for us. Obviously, a different nation we've never played before. And we'll analyse them in the coming days and I think it'd be a good final hit out for us.

A good test against World Cup opponent

I think they've got good players. I think they're a lot of Dutch players in there as well, playing a good levels. But at the end of the day, we just have got to focus on ourselves. We know what type of team we are, how good we are, but we've just got to work on ourselves leading into this game and it'll be a good test for us as well, leading into the World Cup, playing against an opponent that, we're not quite sure about. So we need to get out of our comfort zone adapt. That's really important leading into a World Cup.

MATCH DETAILS

CommBank Socceroos v Curaçao
Date: Tuesday, 31 March
Kick-off: 8.10pm AEDT
Venue: AAMI Park
Broadcast:  Network 10 and Paramount+
Tickets: Available on Ticketek