China will launch its 15th Asian Games football campaign on Thursday (Beijing Time) with a tough Group E opener against Iraq.

Chinese Olympic team footballer Zheng Zhi,left 2nd, undergoes training with his teammate Zhou Haibin (R) to prepare for the match against Iraq.[Xinhua]

Chinese fullback Sun Xiang will miss the opening match because he is currently playing under trial for Dutch football club PSV Eindhoven.

China is ranked four places higher than Iraq in the latest FIFA football rankings, where it sits at 84th place in the world.

Despite this, the game looks set to be challenging, as China lost two out of their three matches against Iraq in the 1974 and 1978 Asian games.

The other two teams in Group E are Oman, in 69th place in the FIFA ranking, and qualifier Malaysia, currently placed at a poor 153.

The 24 qualifying teams are divided into six groups with four teams each.

The top team from each group and two best second-place teams will advance to the Asian Games quarter-finals.