AFC Champions League Playoffs: West zone preview

At stake is a place in the group phase of the continental championship, which the Jeddah-based club won in 2004 and 2005, and Piturca believes home field advantage will give his side a significant boost.

“The match is very important and playing in front of a full crowd is definitely something that will motivate us,” said the Romanian coach. “We will try our best to win and qualify to the group stage, although we know that our opponents are a strong team.

“I’m optimistic that we can win and hopefully we can do this in regular time. We are favourites to win the match because of Al Ittihad’s great history in the competition, but the win will only come through the effort that we put in during the match.”

The Saudis go into the game off the back of a 6-2 win in the domestic league over Al Raed while Al Wehdat, who were buoyed with a 1-0 victory over Al Asala, go into the meeting with doubts over defender Mohammad Al Basha and striker Abdullah Deeb.

“We know that Al Ittihad are a strong team and they are favourites, but we will give our best to win and qualify to the group stage,” said Al Wehdat coach Raed Assaf. “We know that the Al Ittihad fans will be a big factor but we will have our own supporters as well.

“We prepared with some friendly matches and we are ready for the match tomorrow. We have a tough task due to the history of Al Ittihad in the competition but we will do our best tomorrow to have a good result.”

Qatar’s Al Sadd, winners of the continental crown in 2011, will face off against Al Jazira from the United Arab Emirates, with Al Sadd struggling for form domestically.

Led by Spanish World Cup winner Xavi Hernandez, the Doha-based club drew against Al Ahli on Thursday and coach Jesualdo Ferreira (pictured below) conceded facing the Emiratis on their own pitch will give Al Jazira the upper hand.