Sadness, confusion, relief and joy were just some of those emotions felt sitting at Stade de la Mosson. However, there's a lot to look at so let's just dive into the three things we learnt from the game.

1. More specialised central defenders, please

Everyone was speaking about this mid-week but why did the Matildas take just three specialist central defenders to a World Cup?

Photos of Clare Polkinghorne on Twitter not training with the main group with complaints of soreness in her hamstring sent worry into the fans. Who was going to be our other centre back?

Losing Laura Alleway to injury during the pre-tournament camp wasn't ideal either and left Alanna Kennedy as the only central defender on hand. 

The result...Kellond-Knight a defensive midfielder by trade went into left back while Steph Catley shifted into the middle to partner Kennedy. 

The change would result in two goals being conceded from defending errors and while it might have been that it was early game jitters and not being familiar with those roles, both instances were avoidable. However, both are learnings from the game if Polkinghorne cannot play in Grenoble on June 18.

Both slowly settled into their roles as the game went on but the central defending roles need to be an area looked at post World Cup by Ante Milicic and his staff as the team head into the Olympic qualifiers in early 2020.

There are defenders out there waiting for their chance to wear the green and gold. There is no reason not to give it to them to avoid having to put players out of their preferred position again.

2. Switching the front three worked

The attack didn't get a lot of coverage after the first game but it was an area that could be improved coming into the match against Brazil.

There needed to be more movement and rotation among the front three to keep defenders guessing on who was going to come at them each time. 

Kerr was marked heavily by Italy and was isolated, Brazil saw this an applied it to their game plan to stop the W-League and NWSL Golden Boot winner. 

Kathellen stuck to Kerr like glue during the opening few minutes which made it difficult for her to get any space in the box. However, this was changed up after conceding the second goal to see the Matildas captain out wide and Caitlin Foord in the middle while Emily Gielnik stayed on the right. 

It brought an unknown of what Foord could do and it resulted in a goal. It also opened the game up because Kerr and Foord were unpredictable in their change while Chloe Logarzo and Tameka Yallop feed the ball into the box.

This is a play which needs to be continued going forward because its the only way to free the Australian attacked from heavy marking in the box. 

3. Never down and out

All coaches say “a 2-0 scoreline in dangerous”…well Brazil proved that. 

The Matildas showed that fighting spirit which was seemingly missing from the Italy clash to come from 2-0 down in the 38th minute to be 3-2 up by 66th minute. 

It's that never say die attitude that is embedded in Australia's sporting culture that no matter what is happening, they will never give up and keep trying to get that result. 

It was a fantastic result for the Matildas. 

Off to Grenoble we go!