Stuart Pearce insists his Team GB football side are ready to start their Olympic campaign against Senegal on Thursday at Old Trafford despite having only two weeks to prepare for the competition.

Following last Friday's disappointing 2-0 defeat to Brazil in Middlesbrough, which featured just a lone Craig Bellamy shot on target, Pearce had cited his squad's lack of time together as an issue. On Tuesday, Senegal's Mohamed Diamé, the West Ham United midfielder, also pointed to Team GB being a relatively new squad. "It's good for us to start against them because it will take time for the British players to get to know each other properly," he said.

But Pearce, who is leading the first British football team to appear at an Olympiad since 1960, said: "We think we are improving all the time as a group. We have not been together and we haven't had the fortune of a qualification period and getting to know the players as we would have liked. But they have gelled fantastically together. We are improving with every training session. We are looking forward to the game. We are ready for a match.

"The first group game, you have to handle the pressure and intensity, the nerves. We have to make sure the fans back us. Ryan Giggs [the captain] has played on this pitch for 20 years and we have enough experience with the other players. The team will get stronger through their training and performances in the games."

In a group that also includes United Arab Emirates and Uruguay, Pearce expects Senegal to present a physical challenge. "I was fortunate enough to be at the Oman game [a play-off to qualify for London 2012] and subsequently watched three matches leading in to this tournament. They are a strong, physically athletic side, they counter-attack very quickly. They are going to be a tough nut to crack in this group."

Pearce was speaking at a press conference that was sparsely attended by the media, with the former England left-back joking that he might have held it in his "bedroom". Yet with Old Trafford a sell-out on Thursday, the manager refused to accept there is a lack of enthusiasm for the competition. "I was fortunate to go with the England Under-20 squad to Colombia for the World Cup [last year]," he said. "We played a group match against Argentina in front of 44,000 people. The standard was fantastic, the tournament and the exposure was fantastic.

"Very few people in England knew there was a tournament going on. That is how we underestimate tournaments. The same will apply to the Olympics before the football gets started. Once it gets started and they see the magnitude of the teams, the professionalism and the standard of football, they will sit up and take notice. We do belittle Olympic football."

Asked about the perception that the domestic women's game has more to gain from participation, Pearce said: "I find it quite sad if it is viewed that way. Everyone will come away having had a better experience of being part of this tournament. We also hope that the fans come away from the games having enjoyed a great game of football. You never know, we might bring more supporters to football than might have gone before.

"The fact we are at blue-chip stadiums, the fact that we have sold out all the stadiums near as damn it, I think we have a fantastic opportunity to sow the seed and say 'can this happen more often'? We can say to the general public in Great Britain 'look, this is a valid tournament'."