China football officials don't expect to have the best chance to win the 2015 Asian Cup, held in Australia in January.
"We are not the favourite, we do not have the best chance," China's head coach Alain Perrin said after his 23-man squad was unveiled.
"What I know is that the players are ready to give the best they can," Perrin said, adding that "anything was possible".
China survived a scare before scraping into the Asian Cup on goal difference thanks to a late penalty in their 3-1 defeat to Iraq in March.
That defeat made for a shaky start for the newly hired former Lyon boss, selected following a lengthy search to replace Spaniard Jose Antonio Camacho.
"I hope that the efforts the players made during these few months of preparation, and the team spirit of that group, will allow us to get past the first round," Perrin said.
The Frenchman was speaking to reporters after the players were introduced on a television program from a studio in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.
China won only two of their six qualifiers but the 2013 Asian player of the year Zheng Zhi, who plays for club giants Guangzhou Evergrande, will bolster the midfield.
Zheng, the team's captain, was a hit with English fans during nearly three seasons at Charlton Athletic and a year with Scottish giants Celtic before returning to China to join Evergrande.
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