A confident He Chao said: "This will be my first time playing against Timor-Leste. I think they will be strong players."

"In fact, they are just like the players from Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia. They are very fast and quite nimble."

Meanwhile, Chinese forward Wei Shihao mentioned, "Our coach was very kind to me, and talked a lot with me alone, giving me more suggestions."

"He hopes that I can be an excellent player. I will try to reward him by helping us win more matches."

After tonight's opener with Timor-Leste, China will play against Group C rivals Syria on Thursday, and the UAE on Sunday. The top two squads in each pool, plus the four best third-place sides will advance to the knockout stage. The final is set for Sept 1.