No fear for New Zealand

New Zealand head coach Anthony Hudson is keen not to patronise or belittle his players by treating the Confederations Cup match against Mexico as a "learning experience".

The All Whites ticked past 500 minutes in this tournament without a goal as they suffered a 2-0 opening night loss against Russia in St Petersburg.

Hudson was gunning for points against the hosts and will not scale down those ambitions against Mexico, despite El Tri lying 78 places above New Zealand in the FIFA rankings.

"We felt it was a great opportunity in the first game," Hudson told a pre-match news conference at Sochi's Fisht Stadium.

New Zealand coach Anthony Hudson pre Mexico: "In no way are we going into this game fearful." #ConfedCup2017 #MEXNZL @OmnisportNews pic.twitter.com/KhnMavwzHF

— Dom Farrell (@DomFarrell1986) 20 de junho de 2017

"We were so deflated after the game because we felt we had more that we can show, we showed that in the second half.

"Definitely we're in a position now where we've got another opportunity to show the world and other countries who do not expect a lot from New Zealand that we can actually play and we're a good team.

"It's a great opportunity for us. I'm not going to sit here and say this is a learning experience because we want to actually get results here.

"We know the task, we know how difficult it's going to be but this is not a game we are going into fearful or over-respecting the opposition at all.

"We are going into this game with a clear plan of what we want to do. We'll be brave and ultimately we want to make sure the country is proud of what we do."

New Zealand suffered a narrow 2-1 loss when they faced Mexico in a friendly in Tennessee last October and Hudson takes considerable heart from that performance.

New Zealand out for a kickabout at Fisht Stadium, where it has mercifully stopped hosing it down #MEXNZL #ConfedCup2017 @OmnisportNews pic.twitter.com/OciZWx9kY4

— Dom Farrell (@DomFarrell1986) 20 de junho de 2017

"We played against Mexico in October away from home in front of 40-odd thousand Mexico fans and in that game we competed really well, we caused them a lot of problems," said the well-travelled former Newport County and Bahrain boss.

"It was a very close game so we go into this game knowing we have our own game plan. We don't want to go into this game fearful or negative or sit back and allow Mexico to do what they want.

"We're going to be positive, we're going to be brave. We want to improve from the last game and believe we will show that in our game tomorrow.

"I expect a really good game with incredible spirit from our team. This is a massive game for us."