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Alanna Kennedy said it best, beaming with pride in the mixed zone following the Matildas' shock 4-0 win over Canada in Melbourne last week.
"We thrive under pressure," she grinned as her team-mates buzzed around her, answering dozens of questions with variations on the same theme.
"Ideally, we probably wouldn't have wanted to be in that position, but we're always going to fight to the end. It's the Aussie mentality.
"We love the challenge, and I think when our backs are against the wall, that's when we really show our character and who we are as a team.
"We were never going to shy away from tonight."
Sport loves an underdog story. There is something inspiring and deeply human about watching a protagonist go from from zero to hero; in witnessing the challenges — both external and internal — that they must overcome in order to reach some higher goal.
Buster Douglas defeating Mike Tyson, Leicester City lifting the Premier League trophy, Australia winning the unwinnable America's Cup: these stories have become part of sporting folklore precisely because nobody ever thought they would happen.
Perhaps we love these stories because we see something of ourselves in them. They remind us that we can achieve greatness, even with the odds stacked against us. That our potential is not forever flattened by our circumstances. That destiny is in our own hands.
It's why the Matildas' unlikely triumph against the Olympic gold medallists last week to keep their Women's World Cup campaign alive felt like a triumph of us all.
With their tournament hopes hanging by a thread, it seemed as though the entire country had poured itself into the bodies of those 11 players on Monday, running and leaping and fighting through the 90+ minutes together.
It was a game that embodied everything that the Matildas have come to represent, and folded neatly into Australia's larger foundational myth of itself as the battler, the struggling hero, 'the little country that could'.
"This team has shown, time after time with their 'never say die' attitude, that they can come in big when it's needed most," head coach Tony Gustavsson said afterwards.
"We know we might not have the best team on paper. We might not have the most top players in the top clubs in the top leagues.
"But we have something else that nobody can take away from this team, and that's the identity and the DNA and the belief.
"We know we can beat anyone, any given day, when we come out with our A-Game."
But coming into this round of 16 match against Denmark, the underdog tag is starting to sit a little awkwardly on the Matildas.
Because they are, in reality, one of the favourites, not just against the Danes but also, increasingly, at this whole World Cup.
And they have been for a while, even though they may not want to admit that to themselves.
Just look at their results over the past year: They've won 11 out of 13 games, including three against top-five-ranked opponents in Sweden, France, and England (all three of whom they could potentially face on the road to the trophy).
That run, coincidentally, began with a famous victory over Denmark last September: their first over a European opponent since 2018 and a game in which, after going behind in less than a minute, the team came storming back to win 3-1.
They've scored 33 goals and conceded just 8 since then, with most of those coming through players who have blossomed in the shadow of Sam Kerr: Foord, Hayley Raso, Mary Fowler, Cortnee Vine, Katrina Gorry, Steph Catley.
Additionally, they're a team backed by sell-out home crowds, led by some of the world's best players, and with a bracket that has begun to open up tantalisingly in front of them thanks to the early exits of Germany and Brazil.
But the Matildas are not used to being the favourites. It challenges their foundational myth of who they are.
They were the favoured team in both group games against the Republic of Ireland and Nigeria, but they didn't play like it.
They dominated possession, chances, shots and corners but they rarely played with the kind of all-encompassing confidence that comes with truly knowing you're the heavyweight.
It wasn't until they were back in the comfort-zone of their own underdog story, cornered against Canada in a must-win game, that they finally came out fighting with the kind of high-octane, attack-minded, pressing football that they've always talked about.
They had less of the ball, less territory, fewer shots and passes. But from the opening to the closing whistle, they dominated the game.
So what can we expect against Denmark? Against a team sitting several places below them in the world rankings, who scraped past China and Haiti in order to finish second in their group, and whose own head coach has admitted they are the underdogs?
For Gustavsson, as this World Cup generally has shown, nothing that came before this moment really matters.
"You might look at rankings and say we're favourites, but look at those teams ranked 10th, 11th, and 12th in the world," he said. "Look at where those players are playing. I'd say it's an even game in that sense.
"Don't get rushed into thinking this is going to be, because of rank or something else, that this is going to be an easier game, because it's not.
"In a game like this, it's not really about statistics from before or stats or history. It's about this one game and this one moment."
So can the Matildas break free of their underdog mythology and embrace their new identity as one of the World Cup's favourite sides?
Or do they still need to tell themselves this story in order to inspire them to greatness?
Will any of it matter if — after 90 minutes of football — they win?
We're about to find out.