“Wei Shihao’s injury is not so serious,” said the Italian, who is looking to take Guangzhou into the competition’s semi-finals for the third time in the club’s history.

“His injury is a tough one but it won’t have much impact on the game. Whether he can play tomorrow or not, we will have to wait and see.”

Guangzhou take on Kashima after the sides shared a scoreless draw in the first leg at Tianhe Stadium last month, meaning Cannavaro’s side hold the upper hand having not conceded an away goal in China.

“Because the score is 0-0 we will try our best to create trouble,” he said. “Our opponents didn’t score in the away game, so for Kashima Antlers it is very clear tomorrow. If we score a goal they need to score twice, so perhaps that is one of our advantages.

“We are very aware that this game will be very difficult, especially because we are away from home. But we are well prepared.”

Kashima will go into the game buoyed by another impressive performance in the J.League at the weekend, when Go Oiwa’s side handed leaders FC Tokyo a 2-0 defeat to move to within one point of the summit with eight games remaining in the domestic season.

Antlers remain in contention for all four titles available to them this season, having reached the semi-finals of the J.League Cup and the Round of 16 of the Emperor’s Cup despite seeing key players such as Yuma Suzuki, Koki Anzai and Hiroki Abe leave in recent months.

With the tie so finely poised, Oiwa remains wary of the Chinese Super League leaders while the coach has fitness concerns over Kento Misao and Ryohei Shirasaki after they picked up knocks in that win over FC Tokyo.

“What we learned from the first leg is that they are very talented individually with quality players from Brazil, China and Korea Republic,” he said. “We will try to counter that through teamwork and our combinations.”

Brazilian striker Serginho has been instrumental to his side’s success in the AFC Champions League since joining the club from Santos last summer, and he stressed he will not be underestimating the threat posed by Guangzhou.

“Our opponents are very strong,” he said. “It will be a very difficult match for sure but we will do everything we can to try to get to the next round.”