The Thai men's football team landed in Jakarta yesterday, oozing with confidence of stealing at least a point from Qatar in their opening Group B clash of the 2018 Asian Games.
The War Elephants face Qatar, who will be hosting the 2022 World Cup, tomorrow with their remaining two opponents in the group stage being Bangladesh and reigning Asian U23 champions Uzbekistan.
Thailand, who are expected to win their battle with Bangladesh on Thursday, hope the victory would carry them to the last-16 knockout stage.
The winners and runners-up of each group and four best third-placed teams will qualify for the second stage. A total of 26 teams have been divided into six groups for the first round action.
Thailand's last match in the first round will be against Uzbekistan on Sunday.
Worrawoot Srimaka, head coach of the squad, is confident his team can hold the Qataris to a draw.
Before boarding the flight to Jakarta yesterday morning, Worrawoot told the media at Suvarnabhumi airport, that "the key to achieving the target of reaching the second round would be to stay focused."
"The players now are nearly 100 percent ready for the competition. Only Suriya Singmui has a slight injury while Ekkanit Panya will join the team later," said Worrawoot.
"I already have the starting line-up for the game against Qatar in my mind but I need to fine-tune a few things first.
"To start with, I want the players to only focus and concentrate on the first match and on their own game.
"I want them to forget who their opponents are for 90 minutes and do not fear anyone.
"I believe that we can play a close game with every team in this competition," he said.
Although Thailand have never won a medal in Asian Games football, they finished in fourth place four times with the latest one being at Incheon 2014 after losing to Iraq in the third-place play-off match.
They also reached the semi-finals in 1990, 1998 and 2002.
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