The uni's football team will fly to China on Tuesday to contest the University World Cup and coach Luke Wilkshire is confident they can return home with the trophy.

"That's the plan," Wilkshire said. "I'm not going there for anything less.

"If you're going to go into anything, you go into win, otherwise there's no point going at all.

"This is a huge opportunity for the players, it's a huge opportunity for the University of Wollongong and Oceania, to go to such a tournament and make a statement.

"A lot of these guys haven't played at the top level, or played internationally before. They've been in a professional environment the past 10 weeks and they will be in a professional environment at the tournament.

"I know that they are itching to get over there, they've trained hard for 10 weeks, now's the time to show it."

Wilkshire's confidence has been buoyed by quality friendlies against Sydney FC, Central Coast and Western Sydney throughout the past three weeks.

A 1-1 draw with Sydney FC was followed by a loss to the Mariners, with the team finishing off their preparations with a 2-2 draw with the Wanderers on Saturday.

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While the matches were friendlies, the three A-League clubs fielded a number of players with first-team experience and Wilkshire said the improvement shown by his side throughout the three games was significant.

"We've had a 10-week lead in, the boys have been training very hard. Their fitness levels and understanding have definitely improved, there's no doubt about that.

"Playing three friendly games against quality opponents will hold us in good stead. A 2-2 draw against the Wanderers was a decent hit out, but I still think we can perform better. It wasn't our best game, but in the context of things, we got what we needed out of it and we'll be ready for Thursday when it counts."

UOW's campaign commences on Thursday, with a match against China's Taiyuan University of Technology, before they play Spain's University of Malaga and Germany's University of Wurzburg.

Wilkshire concedes he knows very little about the three opponents, with footage of the teams playing hard to come by.

He is confident, however, that if his team plays their best they will progress beyond the group stage.

"It's been challenging trying to get footage and learn about these teams but the most important thing for us is being at the best we can possibly be. When that's the case, I've got confidence in the boys. It will take a very good team to beat us.

"It's always important in these tournaments to start well. The first game sets the tone. You've got three games, you want to be on the front foot, you don't want to be chasing after the first game.

"We just need to execute what we've been working on. If we play football to the best of our ability, I've got no doubt we will have success. We're positive, aggressive, we're going there to win."

Thursday November 21 1.00pm (AEDT): UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG v TAIYUAN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Saturday November 23 11.00pm: UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG v UNIVERSITY OF MALAGA

Monday November 25 11.00pm: UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG v UNIVERSITY OF WURZBURG

All matches can be live streamed at https://fisu.vhx.tv/browse

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