“We are not just here to take part in this competition, we are here to win this tournament,” said Shoji. “We are going to gain momentum by winning tomorrow’s match.

“I experienced winning the AFC Champions League with Kashima Antlers in 2018 but of course the regulations were different from this time so we can’t compare everything like-for-like.

“Last time I played against Persepolis from Iran and I have talked about that experience to my teammates, but there are things you can’t tell in words, you have to experience them yourself, standing on the pitch.

“They have to understand how to adapt to the opponents. It’s my first time in this new format and I’m looking forward to it as well.”

The quarter-final marks a first return to Jeddah for Shoji since featuring for Japan against Saudi Arabia in qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and the 33-year-old believes that experience will have prepared him for the conditions Machida can expect to face at the Prince Abdullah Al Faisal Sports City Stadium.

“It’s nine years since I last played in Jeddah but it was the kind of heat I hadn’t experienced in Japan,” he said. “We have to adapt to this environment. It’s not going to be an excuse.

“We can’t have that as an excuse because we knew this would happen. We’ve had three days to adapt to this so it’s not something we’re too worried about.”

“This is going to be a difficult game but we have to think only about this game, we can’t think about the final,” said the 20-year-old, who joined Al Ittihad last September from Braga in Portugal. “We have to think about each game individually and go step-by-step

“I’m very happy that we’re playing in such an important competition. I’m learning from a lot of excellent players and I’m going to do my best to help my colleagues, to learn from them every day. That’s the most important thing for me.”