After being knocked out of the Asian Cup quarter-finals at the start of the year, the Australians were eager to get back on track in their World Cup qualifying campaign.

With two wins under their belts, they made light work of their remaining four games, scoring 14 goals and keeping four clean sheets.

While it is important to keep in mind that Lebanon, Bangladesh and Palestine are all in contention, coach Graham Arnold will be encouraged by the run of clean sheets.

Australia are now on a run of just one defeat in 13 matches, with that loss to South Korea at the Asian Cup also coming in extra time.

While the quality of the opposition will increase in the third phase of World Cup qualifying, there is plenty of confidence in the camp as they look to make a positive start.

From a Bahraini perspective, they will be delighted to have built on their encouraging Asian Cup campaign by reaching this stage of the qualifying process.

Dragan Talajic's side defeated eventual finalists Jordan in that competition before losing to Japan in the last 16, and have gone on to enjoy a four-match unbeaten run.

A routine win over Nepal was followed by a goalless draw with Yemen to secure a top-two finish, before a 1-1 draw with group winners United Arab Emirates.

With Asian giants Japan and Saudi Arabia in their group, they are unlikely to progress further, but Talajic will be keen to see how his side cope in matches of this magnitude.

Australia possible starting lineup:

Ryan; Miller, Souttar, Burgess, Rowles; Metcalfe, Baccus, Irvine; Yengi, Taggart, Goodwin

Bahrain possible starting lineup:

Lutfalla; Saeed, Al-Hayyam, Baqer, Adel; Al-Aswad, Haram, Marhoon, Al-Shaikh; Madan, Abduljabbar

Prediction:Australia 3-1 Bahrain

Australia VS Bahrain stream and TV listing

International：Holasports