“The most important is to sleep, that’s the best recovery and after that it’s a lot of details; food, drink a lot, do a lot of treatment even if you don't feel it’s necessary to do it,” said the former Wolverhampton Wanderers defender.

“All the small things can add to your recovery, they can help. It’s good a game like this and the issue of the game helps you to recover faster because you’re in a good mood (after the win over Al Hilal). It’s a lot of small things that can make a big difference for the next game.”

Al Sadd go into the quarter-final with their confidence boosted by their 4-2 shoot-out win over the four-time Asian champions, which came after a thrilling 3-3 draw during the preceding 120 minutes.

Head coach Roberto Mancini used the same 11 players throughout the match but Saiss is adamant the issue of fatigue will not be used as a reason for failure should Al Sadd fall to the former J1 League winners.

“I think we don’t want to use the recovery as an excuse,” he said. “We have the quality in the squad to make a difference at any time. Maybe in this game we need more players, but for the players who played we will be ready. We are very professional in this and we take it serious.

“The AFC Champions League Elite is very important for us, we want to go as far as possible so all the small details will make a difference.”

Vissel Kobe arrived in Jeddah on a chartered flight that flew direct to Saudi Arabia from Japan on Tuesday and the J1 League outfit go into the meeting with Al Sadd in a positive frame of mind.

Michael Skibbe’s side sit eight points clear at the top of the western conference of the J.League 100 Year Vision tournament and have also won their last two matches in the AFC Champions League Elite with back-to-back victories over FC Seoul in the Round of 16.

“It’s a long way to the final tournament from the group stage and everyone has contributed to be here, both our ex-coach (Takayuki Yoshida) and coach Skibbe,” said defender Rikuto Hirose. “It will be a big tournament for us.

“We don’t have the chance to play against players from West Asia so it will be a challenge. They are quick and they are powerful but I will try to defend my individual area and we want to work together as a team.”