Thailand coach Milovan Rajevac has warned his players not to underestimate regional minnows Timor Leste and stay focused on grabbing three points from their opening match of the AFF Suzuki Cup on Friday.
The match will be played at Bangkok's Rajamangala National Stadium and will be broadcast live on Channel 7 starting 7pm.
Defending champions Thailand are in Group B, which also includes 2016 runners-up Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore.
Rajevac told a media conference on Thursday that the War Elephants were looking forward to the match with Timor Leste.
"We have been training very hard for more than two weeks. Everything went well according to the plan. The team are now ready for the first game with Timor Leste," said Rajevac.
"However, we will not underestimate any Asean teams at all. We respect every team in this tournament. We will try to create a good result."
"They [Timor Leste] are considered one of the weakest teams in our group but for us every match is the most important one. We are the favourites for this match but of course, we must not underestimate any team.
"It's absolutely crucial to win the points in this first match because we are expecting some more difficult matches afterwards but we have to give our maximum every time and do our best.
"We respect every opponent but we play our style of football, according to our plans so we are expecting a positive outcome for our team."
Timor Leste are unable to host the game due to the fact that their stadium did not meet the Asean Football Federation standards and Rajevac admitted that the change of venue has benefitted his side.
"It's definitely an advantage since we don't have to travel, which would have taken a lot of time," said Rajevac. "This makes things much easier for us and we want to thank Timor Leste for agreeing to come and play here."
Thailand's newly appointed captain Chalermpong Kerdkaew said: "We won't be thinking about whether or not we are playing the strongest or weakest opponents. We will just focus on our own game."
Timor Leste's head coach Norio Tsukitate admitted it is unfortunate that his side were unable to play in front of their home fans but welcomed the opportunity to face the reigning champions.
"Next time, I hope to play in Dili, so that the people of Timor Leste people can come," said Tsukitate.
"There will be many Thai people here, maybe some 30,000 spectators cheering their national team.
"In the last edition, Thailand were champions. We have respect for them as Thailand are very strong in Southeast Asia."
Thailand will be without their four foreign-based stars in the Suzuki Cup.
Consadole Saporro's Chanathip Songkrasin, Teerasil Dangda (Sanfrecce Hiroshima), Theerathon Bunmathan (Vissel Kobe) and goalkeeper Kawin Thamsatchanan (OH Leuven, Belgium) are not available for the tournament.
The tournament started on Thursday with Cambodia hosting Malaysia, and Vietnam travelling to Laos for Group A games. Myanmar are the fifth team in the group.
The top two finishers in each five-team group advance to the semi-finals, which will be played in early next month, with a two-legged final to be played on Dec 11 and 15.