CHINA coach Alain Perrin has urged his plays to steer clear of “stupid mistakes” against Australia, fearing the referee could be influenced by a parochial Suncorp Stadium crowd tonight.

The AFC won’t name the referee until this morning, but Perrin believes that whoever gets the nod to control the match will feel the pressure of a full house at the venue famously dubbed the “Cauldron”.

“The referees are human beings, they may make mistakes and they’re going to be under pressure,” Perrin said.

“The Australian fans may be a factor with the decisions made by the referee, so maybe they are a 55 per cent chance and we are a 45 per cent chance of winning the game.

“I’ve told my players to avoid stupid mistakes and play the way we should play.”

But while China are wary of a refereeing error deciding the do-or-die contest, they seem anything but cautious of what the Socceroos might do.

In-form winger Sun Ke, the scorer of three of China’s five goals in the tournament, was confident China could advance to the semi-finals.

“Maybe we are not the best team in Asia but we have our belief and spirits,” Sun said.

“(The) game we will fight from the first minute to the last minute … we can shine.”

China defender Zhang Linpeng will be given until the last minute to prove his fitness as he battles a calf injury.

Inspirational skipper Zheng Zhi, who has overcome a back injury to start the match, tipped his side to lift in match set to be watched on television by up to 100 million people in China.

“We are very excited. We are full of enthusiasm because we’re playing against Australia, the host country, so we’ll play very well in the match,” the 2013 Asian footballer of the year said.

“This (Australian) team is very powerful and strong, but we will use our own method to face them in this match. The most important thing for us is to play for ourselves, but we will play like the Chinese team to beat Australia.”

Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou said Zheng’s availability would not alter the Socceroos’ plans.

“Obviously he’s fairly influential for them, but … we always analyse oppositions as a collective, and we’ll deal with them as a collective. It’s not about individuals.

“Whether he starts or not, it won’t make a massive difference to the way we approach our game.”

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