With qualification to the World Cup sealed, head coach Farinha feels that the pressure is off for their AFC Futsal Championship semi-final clash with Thailand

BANGKOK - China coach Farinha believes his side can now afford to relax when they take on Thailand in the semi-finals of the AFC Futsal Championships at Nimibutr Stadium on Friday.

A 4-1 upset over Uzbekistan at Hua Mark Stadium sealed China's passage into the last four and set-up an intriuguing clash with the hosts.

But having also secured a berth in the FIFA Futsal World Cup, Farinha admitted his side are now going to enjoy themselves for the remainder of the tournament.

"From now on we're just going to have fun," he said.

"I believe Thailand are the favourites because it's their country and they have a very strong team.

"Our objective was to reach the World Cup and we've done that. Of course we will do our best but it's difficult to say what I expect.

"I respect Thailand very much, China has never beaten Thailand they are a wonderful team and I think it will be a beautiful game. As for myself, I just want to enjoy this moment of qualifying for the World Cup and congratulate the players."

Farinha also stressed that China's success this week in Bangkok is a result of more self-belief within his squad.

"Little by little I tried to convince the players that they were good players, that they just needed to learn more about futsal tactics," he added.

"We finished fourth at the Asian Indoor Games so at that time they started to believe that we could do something.

"Then came the KL 5s in Malaysia and we only faced big teams so that was a very important step for us.

"We've been together for almost 50 days now and they have worked very, very hard as a team every day, twice a day, and they were very tired after the training sessions. "It's based on the fact they believed they could do it step by step."

Thailand coach Jose Maria Parzos Mendez certainly was not underestimating their semi-final opponents despite seeing his side overcome Australia 5-2 in their quarter-final clash.

"China got to the semi final because they're a good team," he said.

"They beat Uzbekistan 4-1 which means they are a very difficult team. A very skilful team.

"Our team is very, very tired because we have had three very close games against Iraq, Kyrgyzstan and Australia.

"Now we are very tired and if people think that playing China will be easy, it's a big mistake.

"At this stage of the tournament, all the teams are very difficult, all the players are very tired. China are a good team and no one should think that China are easy opponents."