Fans have showered more love onto the Matildas after their history-making clash against England smashed Australian viewing records.
The team was welcomed to Brisbane on Thursday with cheers and a guard of honour, a day after their Women's World Cup semi-final reached 11.15 million viewers nationally.
The numbers mean it's the most-watched TV program in Australian homes in more than 20 years and the country's biggest streaming event, with 957,000 online viewers included in the tally.
Drawing an average audience of 7.13 million on Seven and 7Plus, the game peaked at 6.9 million viewers on broadcast, with an 89.8 per cent commercial audience share in total people.
Hoards of fans flocked to live sites across the country to watch the game, which the Matildas lost to the Lionesses 3-1.
Thousands packed into Melbourne's Federation Square to cheer the women in green and gold, but the exuberance was dampened by unruly young men in the crowd.
Police were constantly trying to ensure fans' safety, but spectators breached temporary fences multiple times.
More than 50 flares were set off, with some thrown into the crowd.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said she wasn't aware of anyone being injured but detectives were investigating.
Police fined four males, aged between 16 and 23, more than $960 each for possessing flares and cautioned another 16-year-old male for throwing one.
One person at AAMI Park was also fined for possessing a flare.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said anyone who used flares at Federation Square should have the book thrown at them.
"(Flares) are dangerous and I don't think those people represent the vast majority of soccer fans, football fans who want to enjoy what is an absolutely spectacular game, the beautiful game," Mr Andrews said.
Fans had hoped to gather again at Federation Square on Saturday to watch the Matildas take on Sweden in a bid to secure third place in the World Cup.
But the site's management pulled the pin on Thursday night, citing safety concerns.
"It is clear that if there was a repeat of last night’s behaviour it would be unsafe for families, fans and staff," a Victorian government spokesman told AAP.
AAMI Park will be Melbourne's only public live site, but NSW fans will have an additional view point at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Swinburne University of Technology postdoctoral research fellow Kasey Symons said there were concerns within women's sport about what its success would look like.
Men's sport was seen as the benchmark, but toxic elements of it and the fan culture surrounding it could be damaging and exclusionary, Dr Symons said.
"Women's football, through this Women's World Cup, has become so visible and the culture has been expanded so much that those who might not have been part of that culture are coming in and bringing some of those elements with them that they expect at a sporting space," she said.
The community wanted men's sport to take on the good cultural elements of women's sport, Dr Symons said.
"There's a lot to be learned about the culture of sport for women's sport that can have a positive impact on men's sport because this behaviour (at Federation Square) is unacceptable," she said.
In NSW, fans endured long delays getting home from Sydney's Olympic Park on Wednesday night after a suspected act of vandalism threw the rail network into disarray.
Two men aged 47 and 33 were charged by police and faced Burwood Local Court on Thursday where they pleaded not guilty to a slew of offences.
Both men were refused bail.
The Matildas will take on Sweden in the play-off for third place at 5.30pm on Saturday.
