The Chinese team has arrived in France ahead of the Women's World Cup, which begins later this week. The Steel Roses will play Germany in their first match-up. 

The team's best performance at the event came in 1999 when they lost on kicks to the U.S. in the final. Despite, relatively good showings at previous tournaments, they will be the slight underdogs against two-time champions Germany.

"We can compete with strong teams and we should try our best in the game. We will not think too much about our opponents but only focus on ourselves so we can play at our best level. If we do this, I believe anything can happen," China's goalkeeper Peng Shimeng said.

Jia Xiuquan's team have lost all four of their games with Saturday's opponents on the world stage but still have hope of making it out of the group which also contains South Africa and Spain.