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Socceroos star Aaron Mooy is expecting a big fight as Australia prepare to take on Peru next week in a winner-takes-all World Cup play-off.

Socceroos star Aaron Mooy is up for the fight that looms for Australia in next week's World Cup play-off against Peru.

Mooy played a full game for Australia at the heart of midfield as the Socceroos defeated the United Arab Emirates 2-1 in Qatar on Tuesday night (Wednesday AEST).

That win puts Australia just one win away from a fifth-straight World Cup finals.

Standing in their way though is the world No.22 South American nation, who'll go into the match as heavy favourites against Graham Arnold's team.

Mooy though is approaching the game without any fear after proving his fitness with back-to-back starts having not played a competitive match since February before last week's friendly against Jordan.

"I'm sure it's going to be a big fight," Mooy said.

"This game both teams were feeling each other, it's a bit tense.

"I'm guessing it would be like that as well (on Monday). So much is at stake.

"We'll watch the videos of Peru and figure out their strengths and weaknesses and all that but we're just happy to win the game today and get recovered."

Mooy's fitness is crucial to Arnold's hopes of leading Australia to Qatar, having been starved of game-time in recent months due to the COVID-19 enforced suspension of the Chinese Super League.

The 31-year-old refused to return to a pre-season camp with Shanghai Port ahead of the play-off matches for fear of being trapped in the locked-down city, instead working with Arnold and Socceroos conditioning expert Andrew Clark in Scotland in recent weeks.

With Tom Rogic withdrawing from the camp for personal reasons, the ex-Huddersfield and Brighton player is a key part of Australia's hopes of upsetting Peru.

"It's always good to play," he said.

"I obviously got the friendly game the other day and that was handy to have before competitive games.

"But I felt OK, felt fine. On a personal point, it's good."