KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25 — Malaysia must beat China and hope Saudi Arabia beat Tajikistan in order to move out of the group stages of the ongoing Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U19 championships in Indonesia.

Malaysia opened their campaign with a 2-1 loss to group D leaders Saudi Arabia before a 2-2 draw with Tajikistan to sit on one point and third place in their group.

Saudi top with six point followed by Tajikistan on four.

Head coach Bojan Hodak, while wary of the Chinese threat, is hopeful this charges can overcome tiredness to pull off a win against their Asian counterpart.

"Most players in other teams are tired (from) playing three matches in six days. Our main focus should be on raising our tempo of play,” said Hodak.

"Weather wise it’s similar to Malaysia and I feel we need to keep them away from our goal and work on our counter attacks.”

Malaysia are without Nabil Hakim Johari, whose horrific tackle broke the ankle of Tajikistan’s Ziyuvuddin Fuzaylov.

Hodak added that Nik Akif Syahiran is ready to play while Azhar Apandi may slot in defence.

"Al Iman Abdul Halim played very well against Tajikistan so he’ll start,” said Hodak.

"Overall were in good shape just need to stop allowing the opponents to dominate our space. If we do that we can achieve a positive result.”

The top four teams of the tournament will qualify for the 2019 Fifa U-20 World Cup in Poland as the AFC representatives.

Japan are the defending champions.