Harry Kewell has labeled Wednesday night's Asian Cup qualifier against Oman as a must-win game. The Australian national team are currently in a precarious position to qualify for the 2011 tournament after drawing 0-0 with Indonesia in January and losing 1-0 to Kuwait in Canberra in March and must turn around their fortunes at Etihad Stadium this week as Kewell pointed out.

"It (not qualifying) is not an option," Kewell said.

"And we have taken that advice on early on in camp this time around and even though we had that game on Saturday (against Holland), we knew the important one was Wednesday and it's a must-win.

"The Asian Cup is important. It's a competition that we are favourites in, not like the World Cup where we aren't favourites, because we are right up there with the best teams in Asia so that is where the pressure (to perform) comes into it. And we didn't perform well in the last Asian Cup so we have got to set the record straight this time."

The Galatasaray star said it would be a different story on Wednesday to the 0-0 draw with the Dutch in Sydney on Saturday night.

"I'm sure the performance you will see from us on Wednesday night will be very powerful and very strong and we have got to go out there full-steam ahead (to score goals)," Kewell added.