The must-win Tuesday night clash is already billed as the Hunter's biggest ever football match.

The fixture was locked in after two Tim Cahill goals carried the host nation past China in Brisbane on Thursday night.

The effect of that win was felt immediately in the Hunter on Friday morning, with Newcastle Airport confirming airlines would add an extra 500 seats into the region on game day.

Virgin Australia and QantasLink will run extra flights to accommodate an expected influx of football fans, with Virgin offering a 9am Melbourne to Newcastle flightwhile QantasLink will operate a midday service from Brisbane.

Virgin Australia will also upgrade to larger aircraft on some pre-existing flights.

The Socceroos will take on either defending Asian Cup champions Japan or United Arab Emirates after the two sides play in Sydney on Friday night. 

Asian Cup organisers released a late allocation of tickets on Thursday morning for the semi-final at Hunter Stadium, and by full-time in the match against China these had all but sold out.

On Friday morning, the match was predictably a complete sell-out.

The match will mark the first Socceroos international in Newcastle since they beat New Zealand 3-0 in the semi-finals of the Oceania Nations Cup at Breakers Stadium 20 years ago.

Hunter Stadium’s 33,000 capacity has been controversially limited to just 23,000 for Asian Cup games, and organisers are expected to come under greater pressure to allow more spectators after the Socceroos booked their place in the semi-final.

Australia started shakily in the quarter-final against China, without ever being put under much pressure by the defence-minded visitors.

Captain Mile Jedinak returned from injury and fellow midfielder Mark Bresciano started for the first time in the tournament, but both were rusty in the first half as Australia struggled to string passes together.

But, inevitably, Cahill settled their nerves and put his country on the path to victory with two goals of the highest quality.

Cahill crafted another chapter in his seemingly endless story, scoring first with an audacious scissor-kick just after half-time.

The second was a Cahill trademark, jumping high to arrow a header inside the far post.

Cahill was justly rewarded with a standing ovation from the 46,067-strong crowd in Brisbane when he was substituted, job done, in the 80th minute.

Hunter fans lucky enough to have semi-final tickets will have been cheering just as hard.

with AAP