Craig Moore has warned Australia to beware the threat of Croatia striker Dado Prso.

The pair were team-mates for a brief spell at Rangers before Moore fell foul of former boss Alex McLeish.

The 30-year-old saw enough of Prso to recognise he will be the main danger as Croatia try to stop the Socceroos getting the point required to send them bouncing into the knockout phase in Stuttgart on Thursday.

"I played with Prso at Rangers and know what he can do," said Moore.

"He is a big, awkward type of player. He is difficult to mark and he knows how to score goals.

"His record speaks for itself. He has been a success at Rangers, and at Monaco before that and he has also done it at international level.

"He, more than anyone, will be looking to get his name on the scoresheet and we must try and make sure it doesn't happen."

In contrast to Australia, Croatia have been one of the major disappointments at the World Cup so far.

While they emerged with credit for a battling performance against Brazil in the opening game, the Croats were poor when they faced Japan last Sunday.

Although they threatened the Japanese goal on countless occasions, they could not find the net and would have lost had their opponents taken one of the gilt-edged late opportunities which came their way.

Now, backed into a corner from which there is only one escape, Moore expects the Croats to come out fighting.

"They haven't scored in the competition yet, so hopefully the trend will continue but we have to be extremely wary of them," said the Newcastle defender.

"They need to beat us, so they will have to push men forward at some stage.

"It goes without saying that we want to get the right result. Our target from the start was to reach the knockout phase and we are so close to getting there.

"But Croatia are a very good side and we will achieve nothing if we are not prepared for a very tough game."

Even in defeat, Australia took plenty of heart from their battling performance against Brazil at the weekend.

The loss of Tony Popovic with a calf problem did little to disrupt a supreme defensive effort which set a standard that must be matched in the final game.

Apart from Popovic's injury, the only real negative to come out of the Brazilian clash was the disciplinary charge lodged against Harry Kewell for swearing at referee Markus Mark.

However, FIFA have cleared Kewell to face the Croats, even though the Liverpool star seems set to start on the bench as Guus Hiddink performs the tricky balancing act of trying to be positive while keeping a defensive solidity that will allow Australia to qualify whether they score or not.

"The key thing about Thursday is that the whole situation is in our own hands," said Moore.

"I guess when the draw was made, we always knew it would come down to this game. But we could not really have asked for any more than to be in this position."