Hosts Australia and United Arab Emirates both welcomed back defenders from suspension and made one other midfield switch in their starting teams for the Asian Cup semi-final at Newcastle Stadium on Tuesday.
The winners of the first Asian Cup meeting between the sides will go on to meet South Korea at Stadium Australia in Sydney on Saturday to decide the continental champions.
Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou, who has been rotating his players throughout the tournament, has again tinkered with his midfield for the match against the Emiratis, who knocked out champions Japan on penalties in the quarter-finals.
Mark Milligan comes back into the centre of the midfield with experienced playmaker Marco Bresciano dropping to the bench after starting the quarter-final against China.
In a more expected move, stalwart Matthew Spiranovic returns to the centre of defence in place of Alex Wilkinson after serving a one-match ban for picking up two yellow cards.
Tim Cahill, who scored his 38th and 39th goals for his country in the 2-0 victory over the Chinese, starts up front with Robbie Kruse and Mathew Leckie expected to provide the ammunition from the flanks.
UAE coach Mahdi Ali was also able to bring a key player back into the centre of his defence after a one-match suspension with Walid Abbas displacing Abdelaziz Haikal.
The other change saw Ismail Al Hammadi making way for Mohamed Abdulrahman on the left flank despite being one of UAE’s best players against Japan.
Ali Ahmed Mabkhout, joint top scorer in the tournament with four goals, will again lead the attack in front of influential attacking midfielder Omar Abdulrahman, who was the subject of an injury scare at the weekend.
Australia are looking to reach successive Asian Cup finals after finishing as runners-up to Japan in 2011, while the UAE have only played one final in 1996 when they lost to Saudi Arabia as hosts.
Australia: 1-Mat Ryan; 2-Ivan Franjic, 3-Jason Davidson, 6-Matthew Spiranovic, 20-Trent Sainsbury; 15-Mile Jedinak; 5-Mark Milligan, 21-Massimo Luongo, 7-Mathew Leckie, 10-Robbie Kruse; 4-Tim Cahill
United Arab Emirates: 1-Majed Naser; 3-Walid Abbas, 13-Khamis Esmaeel, 14-Abdelaziz Sanqour, 6-Mohanad Salem, 23-Mohamed Ahmed Gharib; 5-Amer Abdulrahman, 16-Mohamed Abdulrahman, 10-Omar Abdulrahman; 11-Ahmed Khalil, 7-Ali Ahmed Mabkhout
