“I'm very happy that nearly all the players in the squad are ready to play tomorrow, especially a lot of experienced players who have played in Europe,” Skibbe said of a line-up that could include former Japan internationals Yuya Osako and Yoshinori Muto.

“They are back and this is very important for us. They are leaders of our group and I’m very happy we have a very strong team. Hopefully we will see that we are competitive against Al Sadd.”

Skibbe is in his first season as Kobe coach having moved from Sanfrecce Hiroshima during the winter to replace Takayuki Yoshida and the German is relishing the challenge presented by playing in the AFC Champions League Elite Finals Jeddah 2026.

Kobe fell short of a place in the Finals last season, losing out to Gwangju FC from Korea Republic in the last 16, and the task facing his team is one that excites the 60-year-old former Borussia Dortmund coach.

“Over the last days we could see how incredible the football in the western region of Asia is right now with the match we have seen between Al Hilal and Al Sadd,” said Skibbe.

“Two very good teams which have a lot of power, a lot of fast players and physically very strong so it will be a very strong opponent for us to play against Al Sadd tomorrow evening.

“It’s a team with a lot of very experienced players who have played really everywhere in the world and with a coach who is experienced and who has done so many good things during his career.

“It’s very nice to be here in Jeddah and, on the other hand, we would like to show how good is the team of Vissel Kobe playing and we are looking forward to playing tomorrow.”

Vissel Kobe are runaway leaders of the western conference of the J.League 100 Year Vision tournament and will be facing Al Sadd for the first time in the AFC Champions League Elite.

The Qatari side, meanwhile, will go into Thursday’s meeting only four days after playing for more than 120 minutes prior to their 4-2 penalty shoot-out win over Al Hilal.

“We hope to recover very well from the last game,” said Mancini. “It was very, very hard. We played 120 minutes. It’s not easy but we hope to recover very well. I think it will be a very good game, we’re playing a good team with good players.”

The Italian did not make any substitutions during the win over the Saudi Pro League outfit, such was his satisfaction with the performances of those he had selected to start.

“I had confidence in my players in the team at that moment,” said Mancini. “They had a very good balance, they played very, very well.

“Only in the last 10 minutes of the second half of extra time they were a little bit tired all the players kicked the penalties very good and they were on the field. For this reason I didn’t change any players.”