Aziz Behich’s late own goal, coming after Paul Pogba’s shot deflected off his shin, was the difference between the teams following successful penalty conversions by Antoine Griezmann and Mile Jedinak for their respective sides looked set to see the points shared.
Bert van Marwijk’s side went toe-to-toe with the Euro 2016 finalists in their clash in Kazan and their showing throughout the 90 minutes has left Sainsbury and his teammates looking forward to their match with the Danes.
“Coming away from the France game it’s refuelled us knowing that we can tango with the best, I guess,” the Grasshopper Zurich defender said. “I know the boys are still running on a high at the moment and I don’t think that’s going to change until after the last game against Peru, and then we’ll see where we are.
“The France game was a good defensive display and even going forward we played some nice football, but the biggest thing for us is that we know we can do better and that’s the biggest confidence boost we need.
“We’ll start to work on the training pitch, but the boys are on a high after the France game and we’re going to take that into the Denmark game.
“I think we won a bit of respect from our own country, our fans as well. It was nice having what felt like a home game the other night and seeing a sea of gold out there. We got a few plaudits from the France team and other people around the world.
“It was nice but I think we knew we had those performances in us. It’s a good solid team, we’ve been together a long time and it’s easy to play well when you’ve been together a long time.”
The loss in the opener means Australia will need to take something from their meeting with Denmark, who snaffled a 1-0 win over Peru in their first game of the tournament thanks to a goal from Yussuf Poulsen.
A win for the Danes would book Age Hareide’s team a place in the last 16 and Sainsbury knows he and his teammates cannot afford to focus on just one or two players.
“They’ve got a great team of players, not just an individual player,” said Sainsbury. “They’ve got players playing in top leagues around the world so it’s not just one threat we’ve got to look out for.
“It was the same against France and the coaching staff will have us well prepared and if we need any information on any of the players they’ll provide it for us.”
Sainsbury is appearing at his first FIFA World Cup and the AFC Asian Cup-winning defender is relishing his time at the tournament.
“I’ve always believed in my abilities and I’m happy to take on the best players in the world,” he said. “Against France it was a good team battle and being able to come away from the game was a bit bittersweet.
“I was happy with my own performance, unhappy with the final result. I’d trade it for a victory or at least a point but at the same time I’m happy that my personal performance was good.”
Source: the-afc.com